Characteristics of Polish Unifloral Honeys IV. Honeydew Honey, Mainly Abies Alba L.

Abstract

S u m m a r yConiferous honeydew honey, mainly Abies alba was characterised. Samples chosen for the study had organoleptic traits characteristic for the variety: greenish, opalescence tone of brown colour, mild, sweet flavour with pleasant, slightly resinous aftertaste and aroma as well as electrical conductivity over 0.95 mS/cm. To define composition and physicochemical parameters of the variety, contents of water and total sugars were determined. In addition various carbohydrates were identified and their contents were assessed as well. These were: fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, turanose, trehalose, isomaltose, malezitose. Other examined parameters related to honey quality were: free acidity, pH, the content of 5-hydroxymetylofurfural (HMF), the main amino acid -proline, and the activity of α-amylase enzyme (Diastase Number). The following properties were proven to be characteristic for this variety: high electrical conductivity with the average value of 1.14 mS/cm, ranging from 0.96 to 1.32 mS/cm; content of monosaccharides lower by few percent in relation to other honey varieties (from 58.2 to 67.4 g/100 g; on average 62.0 g/100 g) and a higher content of disaccharides and trisaccharide -melezitose. The presence of this sugar confirms that a considerable part of the honey was produced from honeydew. The average value of melezitose was 3.2 g/100 g, ranging from 0.9 to 5.9 g/100 g. Also, the results of the pH measurements were slightly higher than in other honey varieties (from 4.23 to 4.99; on average 4.63). The colour value in mm Pfund ranged from 74 to 105, with the average of 93.

Croatian produced unifloral honey characterized according to the protein and proline content and enzyme activities

“…Comparing the results obtained in this study with the results for European unifloral honeys reported by the International Honey Commission (Persano Oddo & Piro, 2004), our results for black locust honey were slightly lower than for the European black locust honey samples (112 -337 mg/kg). The proline content of other honey types analysed in this study was in compliance with our previously reported results for sage and honeydew honey (Kenjerić et al, 2006;Primorac et al, 2009) as well as with the proline content of the same honey type from different geographical regions (Cavrar et al, 2013;Rybak-Chmielewska et al, 2013). The enzymes in honey mainly originate from the bee, but the enzyme activities of different honey types varies according to botanical origin.…”

Assessment of physicochemical and antioxidant characteristics of Quercus pyrenaica honeydew honeys

“…These results indicated that the honey was fresh. The range of diastase activity was similar to that found in other honeydew honeys (Persano-Oddo & Piro, 2004;Primorac et al, 2009;Rybak-Chmielewska, Szczę sna, Waś, Jaśkiewicz, & Teper, 2013) but higher than the values reported by Díez et al (2004) and Bentabol et al (2011).…”

Comparison of selected quality characteristics of domestic and Thailand multifloral honeys

“…The pH value of the honeys ranged from 3.65 to 4.53. These values were similar to those obtained by other authors (2,6,14,26,31,42,43,48,51,52).…”

“…to 42.3% (on average 37.7%) (39,40). The protein content in honey is in the range of 500-10 000 mg/kg (on average 2000 mg/kg) (41), and mineral content ranges from 500 to 3500 mg/kg (8,25).…”