Exploring the Composition and Authenticity of Honey and Syrup Samples Using Quantitative NMR Spectroscopy and Principal Component Analysis in an Upper-Year Undergraduate Analytical Environmental Course

Abstract

The adulteration of food products, including honeys and syrups, is of growing concern in global food markets. Detecting adulterated food products can be difficult using traditional analytical methodologies because of complex sample matrices or poor separation of key compounds. NMR is an analytical tool that circumvents some of these issues by providing a snapshot of chemical components in a sample mixture with minimal and unbiased sample preparation. In this upper-year undergraduate and graduate laboratory, students are introduced to NMR as an analytical tool through the analysis of a honey or syrup sample of their choice. Simple sugars in honeys or syrups are quantified using a single point internal standard, while the NMR signals arising from the complex organic mixture of amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and oils found in these syrups are compared against a sample data set using principal component analysis. The experiment highlights the benefits and challenges of NMR as an analytical tool, demonstrating the simplicity of sample preparation and single-point calibration, as well as the limitations of instrument sensitivity and signal resolving power.

Enhancing Statistical Education in Chemistry and STEAM Using JAMOVI. Part 2. Comparing Dependent Groups and Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

“…Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. ,,− …”

Teaching statistics and chemometrics using an open source, free and graphical user interface software.

“…Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. 24,[67][68][69][70][71] JAMOVI has the plugin MEDA that can generate high-resolution PCA plots, it has the FactoMineR package. 72 The use of this plugin for PCA was described using the spreadsheets Iris and coffee 370 (supporting information).…”