Classification of Honey from Its Bee Origin via Chemical Profiles and Mineral Content

Abstract

Raw honeys from four different bee species, namely the honey bees and stingless bees, were classified based on its chemical profiles, mineral contents and heavy metals. Chemical profiles including proximate composition, predominant sugars, hydroxymethylfurfural content, and diastase activity were determined following official methods while mineral and heavy metals contents were obtained from atomic adsorption spectrometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements, respectively. Both hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis show high possibility of distinguishing honey by its bee species of honey bees (Apis spp.) and stingless bees (Heterotrigona itama) based on distinctive differences in chemical compositions and mineral contents. Potassium and sodium were the major elements in raw honey samples at average of 904.9 and 617.6 mg/kg, respectively. Honey from stingless bee contained more protein, 0.85 g/100 g and less total sugar of fructose and glucose at 24.99 g/100 g. The information of bee speciation origin of honey bees and stingless bees enhances the identity of honey on the product labelling.

Influence of origins and bee species on physicochemical, antioxidant properties and botanical discrimination of stingless bee honey

“…[20] There is limited publication available on Malaysian stingless bee honey. [21][22][23] Most of the publications reported are on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties. However, there is no information on organic acids of Malaysian stingless bee honey.…”

Comparison of DNA extraction methods for entomological origin identification of honey using simple additive weighting method

“…PCR amplification of the Kelulut A1 (Lane 9), Kelulut A2 (Lane 10), Commercial X (Lane 12) and Commercial Z (Lane 14) samples were unsuccessful probably due to degradation of DNA molecules into fragments smaller than 150 bp. These honey samples also have higher hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content in the range of 30.0-295.2 mg kg À1 as compared to other honey samples with HMF content less than 24 mg kg À1 (Kek et al, 2017a). The HMF is one of the common intermediate product of Maillard reaction that appears naturally in honey, increasing with heating, improper storage temperature and longterm storage (Furkan Yardibi & Gumus, 2010;Fechner et al, 2016).…”

Classification of Raw Stingless Bee Honeys by Bee Species Origins using NMR-LCMS-based Metabolomics Approach

“…In addition, the metabolites contents are varied due to different stingless bee species might secrete different types of enzymes to Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 16 July 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201807.0291.v1 the foraged nectar. According to Kek et al, [34], the composition of honey is probably affected by the type of bee because honey-making process is highly related to enzymes added by the bees. Therefore, bee species origins could be suggested as reliable classifier in rapid determination of honey quality in terms of originality and purity using NMR-LCMS-based metabolomics approach.…”

“…Kek et al, [34] showed that the entomological origins of stingless bee honeys (four different bee species) can be used as classifier to classify raw honeys using their chemical profiles and mineral contents. According to Ramón-Sierra et al, [33], it is possible to differentiate honey samples in terms of bee species origins using metabolomics tools.…”