Honey Volatiles as a Fingerprint for Botanical Origin—A Review on their Occurrence on Monofloral Honeys

Abstract

Honeys have specific organoleptic characteristics, with nutritional and health benefits, being highly appreciated by consumers, not only in food but also in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Honey composition varies between regions according to the surrounding flora, enabling its characterization by source or type. Monofloral honeys may reach higher market values than multifloral ones. Honey’s aroma is very specific, resulting from the combination of volatile compounds present in low concentrations. The authentication of honey’s complex matrix, according to its botanical and/or geographical origin, represents a challenge nowadays, due to the different sorts of adulteration that may occur, leading to the search for reliable marker compounds for the different monofloral honeys. The existing information on the volatiles of monofloral honeys is scarce and disperse. In this review, twenty monofloral honeys and honeydews, from acacia, buckwheat, chestnut, clover, cotton, dandelion, eucalyptus, fir tree, heather, lavender, lime tree, orange, pine, rape, raspberry, rhododendron, rosemary, strawberry tree, sunflower and thyme, were selected for volatile comparison purposes. Taking into consideration the country of origin, the technique of isolation and analysis, the five main volatiles from each of the honeys are compared. Whereas some compounds were found in several types of monofloral honey, and thus not considered good volatile markers, some monofloral honeys revealed characteristic volatile compounds independently of their provenance.

TAXONOMIA HISTÓRICA DE NOGUEIRAPIS MOURE, 1953, SCAURA SCHWARZ, 1938, TETRAGONA LEPELETIER & SERVILLE, 1828 E TRIGONA JURINE, 1807 (APIDAE: MELIPONINI)

“…O feniletanal foi identificado em todos os méis e é citado em diversos estudos como constituinte volátil de méis, cítricos e de eucalipto, empregado na formulação do aroma artificial de mel. O cis-óxido de linalol, identificado em todas as amostras, é também constituinte volátil desses e de outros diversos méis (Manyi-lohet al, 2011;Machado et al,2020).…”

Antibiofilm Activity of Heather and Manuka Honeys and Antivirulence Potential of Some of Their Constituents on the DsbA1 Enzyme of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

“…Our predictive in silico analysis revealed that benzoic acid, a constituent of both Heather [ 58 ] and Manuka honey [ 59 ], could bind with a high efficiency into the pocket of Pa DsbA1 where the control ligand fits [ 20 ]. This binding occurs via H-bond interactions between the hydroxyl hydrogen of benzoic acid and the carbonyl oxygen of Pro20, and between the hydroxyl oxygen of benzoic acid and the phenolic hydrogen of Tyr148.…”

Classification of Unifloral Honeys from SARDINIA (Italy) by ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy and Random Forest

“…In addition, the traditional melissopalinological analysis is not effective in the authentication of filtered honeys and those whose pollen is underrepresented. For these reasons, for several years the scientific community has been developing instrumental analytical protocols aimed at relating specific markers or classes of compounds to the floral origin of honey, most of them summarized in a number of authoritative reviews [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. In this context, chromatographic techniques have for years been a key tool in the search for specific markers.…”