Characterisation of northwest Moroccan honeys by gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric analysis of their sugar components

Abstract

Combined gas chromatography±mass spectrometry (GC±MS) was used to analyse the sugar composition of honeys from northwest Morocco. This technique allowed the identi®cation and quanti®cation of two monosaccharides, eight disaccharides and three trisaccharides. In addition, characterisation of the main uni¯oral honeys by principal component analysis (PCA) and stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA) was carried out. PCA showed that the cumulative variance was approximately 50%, and about 70% of the samples were correctly classi®ed using SDA, with the best results being obtained for the honeydew honeys (100% correct).

Mineral content and electrical conductivity of the honeys produced in Northwest Morocco and their contribution to the characterisation of unifloral honeys

“…Thus, for better classification of the five honey types studied in this work, we must use other parameters, such as methyl anthranilate or hesperitin in the case of orange honeys, 25,26 or some sugars and some physicochemical parameters (pH, acidity, HMF and proline) for Apiaceae and Lythrum honeys. 8,9 …”

“…Physicochemical parameters such as water content, pH, acidity, HMF, diastase activity and proline 8 and sugar composition 9 were examined to test their suitability for characterising Moroccan unifloral honeys. Satisfactory results were obtained only for some honey types.…”

“…However, these sugars provided an overall percentage of correct classification of only 69%. 9 Owing to the great scientific and commercial interest in the characterisation of unifloral honeys, and considering the lack of previous works on the mineral fraction in Moroccan honeys, the aims of this work can be summarised under two headings: (a) the study of the mineral content and electrical conductivity of Moroccan honeys; (b) the application of several (Received 10 June 2002;accepted 19 November 2002) statistical methods to mineral content and electrical conductivity data in an effort to characterise five Moroccan unifloral honeys.…”

Caracterização físico-química de méis de Apis mellifera L. da região noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul

“…Quimicamente o mel é composto por açúcares (70-80%), com predominância de glicose e frutose, água (10-20%) e outros constituintes em proporções mínimas como sais minerais, ácidos orgânicos, vitaminas, compostos fenólicos, proteínas e aminoácidos livres (TERRAB et al, 2001).…”

Parâmetros físico-químicos, polínicos e determinação de elementos-traço do mel de Meliponinae (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…Além disso, é de fundamental importância a caracterização regional de méis, levando-se em consideração a grande diversidade botânica e a variação climática de cada região (TERRAB et al, 2001).…”