HPLC and 1H-NMR combined with chemometrics analysis for rapid discrimination of floral origin of honey

Abstract

The aim of the study is to discriminate mono-floral honey by the chemical characteristics of non-sugar components (NSC) present in honey based on their botanical origin. The NSC in 50 honey samples including jujube, chaste and locust were determined and compared using HPLC and 1H-NMR combined with chemometrics analysis. The results showed that the content of NSC in jujube honey was the highest, with the average value of 780.77 mg/100 g, followed by locust honey, the lowest was chaste honey, with the average value of 292.43 mg/100 g. HPLC and 1H-NMR fingerprints of mono-floral honey samples were established, in which common chromatographic and spectral peak information were obtained. Principal component analysis and discrimination analysis were performed using selected common peaks as dependent variables and floral origin as independent variables, 44 honey samples and six test samples were correctly classified according to their floral origin.