Flavour compounds of Greek cotton honey

Abstract

Finding marker compounds is a powerful tool in the determination of the botanical origin of honey. For this purpose the flavour fraction of Greek cotton honey was investigated. A striking characteristic of this type of honey is the presence of more than 35 phenolic compounds in the extract, accounting for almost 60% of the total amount of compounds positively identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In comparison with honeys of nine different origins, a total of 15 compounds could serve as potent markers for cotton honey, namely cinnamaldehyde (0.44%), cinnamyl alcohol (1.79%), cinnamic acid (1.13%), neryl and geranyl nitrile (0.16 and 0.41% respectively), benzenepropanol (0.5%), homovanillyl alcohol (0.6%), (E)-and (Z)-p-methoxy-cinnamic acid (0.48 and 0.14% respectively), 2-methyl-p-phthalaldehyde (0.22%), coniferaldehyde (0.47%), p-coumaric acid (1.77%), ferulic acid (0.51%), scopoletin and scoparone (0.47%).

Using flavonoids, phenolic compounds and headspace volatile profile for botanical authentication of lemon and orange honeys

“…Although the results obtained were lower than those for flavonoids and phenolic compounds, they are in fact acceptable for volatile compounds, agreeing with those obtained by other authors. However, the repeatability was better in the present work (by purge and trap) than that obtained following other extraction methodologies, in which the values of RSD were higher (Alissandrakis et al, 2003;CastroVazquez et al, 2007). Table 2 shows the mean concentration values of the quantified volatile compounds (expressed as μg/100 g of honey) as well as their standard deviations (SD) for both lemon and orange blossom honey.…”

“…For this reason, volatile fraction assessment could be a useful tool for the characterization of geographical or botanical origins (Castro-Vazquez, Diaz-Maroto, Torres, & Pérez-Coello, 2010;CuevasGlory, Pino, Santiago, & Sauri-Duch, 2007;Verzera, Campisi, Zappala, & Bonaccorsi, 2001). The large number of works published in recent years related to the volatile profile of monofloral honeys and especially from the citrus genus reflects the interest in this subject (Alissandrakis, Daferera, Tarantilis, Polissiou, & Harizanis, 2003;Alissandrakis, Tarantilis, Harizanis, & Polissiou, 2007;Serrano, Villarejo, Espejo, & Jodral, 2004;Castro-Vazquez, Diaz-Maroto, & Pérez-Coello, 2007;Sesta et al, 2008;Castro-Vazquez, Diaz-Maroto, González-Viñas, & Pérez-Coello, 2009). Although citrus honey with different geographical origins has been previously characterized on the basis of its different chemical and physical parameters, to the authors' knowledge, studies focused on lemon blossom honey have not been published up to now.…”

A headspace solid-phase microextraction method development and its application in the determination of volatiles in honeys by gas chromatography

“…On that account, it is especially essential to select a suitable extraction technique. Among the solutions introduced in literature, the most popular are, solvent extraction (SE) (D'Arcy, Rintoul, Rowland, & Blackman, 1997;Rowland, Blackman, D'Arcy, & Rintoul, 1995), steam distillation (SD) (Alissandrakis, Tarantilis, Harizanis, & Polissiou, 2005), simultaneous distillation and solvent extraction (SDE) (Alissandrakis et al, 2005;Bouseta & Collin, 1995;Gyuot, Bouseta, Scheirman, & Collin, 1998;Gyuot, Scheirman, & Collin, 1999) and ultrasound supported extraction (USE) (Alissandrakis, Daferera, Tarantilis, Polissiou, & Harizanis, 2003;Alissandrakis et al, 2005).…”

Investigation of organic extractives from unifloral chestnut (Castanea sativa L.) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus Labill.) honeys and flowers to identification of botanical marker compounds

“…Fatty acids and long chain hydrocarbons originate from residual beeswax, while diacids that are present in honey have for long been considered as part of the pheromone system of the honeybee (Tan, Holland, Wilkins, & Molan, 1988). Of the phenolics found in honey, pinostrobin chalcone (Alissnadrakis, Kibaris, Tarantilis, Harizanis, & Polissiou, 2005) and the flavonoids pinocembrin, pinobanksin and chrysin (Tomás-Barberán, Martos, Ferreres, are of propolis origin. A very interesting approach was recently published concerning the evolution of the volatile constituents from linden blossoms to linden honey via the "intermediate" honeybee (Naef, Jaquier, Velluz, & Bachofen, 2004).…”