Abstract
The Southern region of Brazil is known for its floral diversity, presenting great potential for bee products such as honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly. In this study, 67 honey samples provided by beekeepers from 14 municipalities of western Paraná were evaluated. Physicochemical parameters, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity were analyzed. The physicochemical parameters of the samples were in compliance with the specifications by national and international standards, presenting average values of 3.26, 34.54 meq.kg-1, 18.75%, 10.79 mg.kg-1, 0.14% and 340.10 µS.cm-1, for pH, acidity, moisture, hydroxymethylfurfural, ash content and electrical conductivity, respectively. The nutritive values of honey, on average, achieved 0.28% of protein from 69.09% of total sugars, 64.57% of reducing sugars and 4.28% of sucrose. Bioactive compounds showed average values of 34.83 mg GAE/100 g-1 of total phenols and 16.26 mg EQ/100 g-1 of flavonoids, enabling antioxidant activity of 2.68 µmol FE (II)/g-1 of FRAP, 1.01 µmol ET/g-1 from ABTS and 0.12 µmol ET/g-1 of DPPH. This first study evaluated the parameters through cluster analysis and observed nine groups formed, as well as the characteristics between the samples with similar reaction. We concluded that the honey samples have high similarity and confirmed the quality of the honey produced.
Highlights
Honey cannot be used as a nutritionally complete option of food for humans, but it has a good potential to serve as food supplement
Phenolic acids and flavonoids are listed as the main reason why honey has an antioxidant capacity (Baglio, 2018), due to their mechanism of action and reactions based on the transference of hydrogen atoms or simple electrons (Eteraf-Oskouei & Najafi, 2013)
The aim of this study was to characterize the honey produced by beekeepers from the aforementioned region, with regard to physicochemical parameters, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity, as well as the degree of similarity between the samples from different municipalities
Summary
Honey cannot be used as a nutritionally complete option of food for humans, but it has a good potential to serve as food supplement It has been used in medicine against various diseases since ancient times in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and in western, eastern, Chinese and Ayurveda medicines (Kuropatnicki et al, 2018). In traditional medicine, it has effects on the treatment of burns, diarrhea and ulcers (Ahmed et al, 2018). The medicinal effects of honey are due to its antioxidant action as it has intrinsic compounds, such as glucose oxidase enzymes, catalase and peroxidase. Phenolic acids and flavonoids are listed as the main reason why honey has an antioxidant capacity (Baglio, 2018), due to their mechanism of action and reactions based on the transference of hydrogen atoms or simple electrons
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