Phenolic and flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity of honey from Kosovo

Abstract

In this study, the phenolic and flavonoid content, as well as antioxidant activity of one-hundred honey samples of different botanic origin were analyzed. Eighty-six of these samples are originated from different regions in Kosovo, while the rest fourteen are imported samples that can be found in the Kosovo market. To determine the content of phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity (2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP)), spectrophotometric methods were used. Total phenolic content ranged from 25.76 ± 10.16 to 84.17 ± 30.14 mg GAE/100 g honey, total flavonoid content ranged from 1.11 ± 0.62 to 7.51 ± 3.75 mg CE/100 g honey, FRAP activity varies from 3.65 ± 1.96 to 22.39 ± 12.86 mg TE/100 g honey, while DPPH activity varies from 0.73 ± 0.34 to 2.61 ± 0.93 mg TE/100 g and 22.23 ± 7.82 to 66.92 ± 23.18%, respectively. Due to the correlation matrix, total phenolic content shows positive correlation in all honey samples (mean value of all samples, FRAP: 0.829 and DPPH: 0.804); and total flavonoid content shows also positive correlation within all samples (FRAP: 0.834 and DPPH: 0.813).