Discrimination of Natural Mature Acacia Honey Based on Multi-Physicochemical Parameters Combined with Chemometric Analysis.

Tianchen Ma,Caiyun Liu,Wei Cao,Min Zhu,Haoan Zhao,Hui Gao,Ni Cheng

doi:10.3390/molecules24142674

Abstract

Honey maturity is an important factor in evaluating the quality of honey. We established a method for the identification of natural mature acacia honey with eighteen physicochemical parameters combined with chemometric analysis. The analysis of variance showed significant differences between mature and immature acacia honey in physicochemical parameters. The principal component analysis explained 82.64% of the variance among samples, and indicated that total phenolic content, total protein content, and total sugar (glucose, fructose, sucrose) were the major variables. The cluster analysis and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis demonstrated that samples were grouped in relation to the maturity coinciding with the results of the principal component analysis. Meanwhile, the 35 test samples were classified with 100% accuracy with the method of multi-physicochemical parameters combined with chemometric analysis. All the results presented above proved the possibility of identifying mature acacia honey and immature acacia honey according to the chemometric analysis based on the multi-physicochemical parameters.

Highlights

Acacia honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees, which collect nectar from the flowers of Robinia pesudoacacia (Figure 1), transform and combine it with specific substances of their own, store it, and leave it in the honeycomb to ripen and mature [1]
All the results presented above proved the possibility of identifying mature acacia honey and immature acacia honey according to the chemometric analysis based on the multi-physicochemical parameters
principal component analysis (PCA), allallhoney were divided basically consistent with the analysis of the parameters mentioned above: color, electrical basically consistent with the analysis of the parameters mentioned above: color, electrical conductivity, pH, free acid, lactone, total acid, glucose, fructose, sucrose, total sugar content, total conductivity, pH, free acid, lactone, total acid, glucose, fructose, sucrose, total sugar content, total phenolic content, amylase activity, HMF, total protein content, glucose oxidase, and other basic phenolicphysicochemical content, amylase activity, HMF, total protein content, glucose oxidase, and other basic parameters

Summary

Introduction

Acacia honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees, which collect nectar from the flowers of Robinia pesudoacacia (Figure 1), transform and combine it with specific substances of their own, store it, and leave it in the honeycomb to ripen and mature [1]. Glucose and fructose indicate about 75% of the sugars found in honey, which play important roles in honey quality control and authenticity. The ratio between fructose and glucose, as well as their concentration, are commonly used for predicting honey crystallization and are a beneficial index for the classification of monofloral honeys [20,21].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion