Relationships Linking the Colour and Elemental Concentrations of Blossom Honeys with Their Antioxidant Activity: A Chemometric Approach
, Małgorzata Stryjecka 2, Piotr Skałecki 1, Piotr Domaradzki 1, Michał Rudaś 3 and Mariusz Florek 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Introduction
The authors state: Honey not only is an ideal energizing product and a source of nu-42 merous beneficial nutrients [1],
Comment: The reference only provides the opinion of Rao. Since there are allergies to honey, honey cannot be considered ideal. I am unaware of any trials which have compared various energizing products and identified honey. Also, as shown in several trials, honey is perceived as being too sweet when consumed in larger quantities. This statement should be changed. Please also provide the informati9on which nutrients are meant.
The authors do not mention honeydew honey and the differences to blossom honey. This could be relevant to their work
Material and method
Especially during summer there is the chance that the honey could be mixtures of honeydew honey and blossom honey. This could significantly affect the composition. How was that excluded?
Discussion
The mineral and trace element composition of honey depends on the plant species 311 which is the source of the nectar and initially on the mineral composition of the soil it 312 grows on. This statement needs a reference. Why didn’t the authors also analyze the soil?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
The authors would like to warmly thank you for all comments and suggestions, especially the critical ones, aimed at improving the scientific value of the article and eliminating the most important errors. We would like to inform that all Reviewer’s comments and corrections were introduced in amended manuscript.
Authors are greatly appreciate the opportunity that have been given to further revise the manuscript, and believe that Reviewer will share submitted arguments and find this revision fully satisfactory.
Answers and explanations to all the issues raised are given below.
Introduction
The authors state: Honey not only is an ideal energizing product and a source of numerous beneficial nutrients [1],
Comment: The reference only provides the opinion of Rao. Since there are allergies to honey, honey cannot be considered ideal. I am unaware of any trials which have compared various energizing products and identified honey. Also, as shown in several trials, honey is perceived as being too sweet when consumed in larger quantities. This statement should be changed. Please also provide the informati9on which nutrients are meant.
Answ. Thank you for the important comment. Due to the controversial nature of the opinion, it has been removed and the sentence has been reworded.
The authors do not mention honeydew honey and the differences to blossom honey. This could be relevant to their work
Answ. Only nectar honeys were evaluated in the present study. Due to specific properties of honeydew honeys, their evaluation will be the subject of another article. Thank you for this valuable remark.
Material and method
Especially during summer there is the chance that the honey could be mixtures of honeydew honey and blossom honey. This could significantly affect the composition. How was that excluded?
Answ. The honeys were purchased directly from beekeepers who determine the botanical origin of their honey mainly on the basis of organoleptic characteristics – such as colour, taste, smell and consistency. In order to accurately classify the honeys, we used the method recommended by law in force in Poland (Off. J. 2009 No. 17 item 94) concerning analytical methods, which determines the amount of predominant pollen, whose proportion is larger than that of other pollen present in the microscopic preparation, and correspondingly the botanical name of the plant. This classification was supplemented by physicochemical measurements.
Discussion
The mineral and trace element composition of honey depends on the plant species which is the source of the nectar and initially on the mineral composition of the soil it grows on. This statement needs a reference. Why didn’t the authors also analyze the soil?
Answ. Due to the area of investigation, additional analyses of minerals content in soil were beyond the technical and financial possibilities of the authors.
Yours faithfully,
Mariusz Florek, Professor
Corresponding author
Reviewer 2 Report
The novelty component of the paper is modest.
The physicochemical characteristics of the different honey samples cannot be considered in a homogeneous way because the storage times and methods are not rigorously defined with reference to the time of collection from the hive (i.e.: 5-HMF, diastase number, ...).
In principle, the claims refer to the beneficial effect on the human body by antioxidant activity of honey as “… but also exerts antioxidant immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects …” have no scientific meaning as it does not refer to the contribution of antioxidant substances with respect to the daily requirement, deriving from a reasonable consumption of honey (i.e.: 20 g/day).
In the introduction, at line 65-67, regarding the phrase "At the same time, due to the rich chemical composition of honey, it can be a healthy substitute for sugar, which is widely used in food and beverages" it makes sense to relate "due to the rich chemical composition of honey" to "can be a healthy substitute for sugar". Rather write, "... due to the rich content in different sugars of honey, it can be a healthy substitute for white sugar".
L.198: The values shown in tab. 1 do not comply with BIPM guidelines (https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/2071204/JCGM_100_2008_E.pdf/cb0ef43f-baa5-11cf-3f85-4dcd86f77bd6). The standard deviation has to be represent with significant digits, and the measured value has to represent accordingly.
L. 198: In tab. 1, why are two different units of measurement used for DPPH and FRAP, given that the values are comparable?
In the results and discussion, at lines 60-61, 212-213, 230-231, 248-249, 297-298, 311-313, 332-333, 406-407, the authors repeat several times concepts that have been known for a long time. This information should only be expressed once in the introduction.
L. 255-257: The phrase “The aW value depends mainly on the concentration of glucose, which interacts with water molecules and is the first to crystallize, before fructose” is not sufficient to correctly define the possible variation of the aW content, in relation to any change in the physical state of the honey over time.
L. 218-219: the pH of AC honey does not differ significantly from BW, RS and MF, therefore it cannot be said that AC is the one with the absolute lowest pH value (based on the values shown in table 1).
L. 237 and onwards cases: p-value could not be =0,000 but p<0,001.
L. 273: same comment as at L. 218.
L. 367-370: in the text is not clear if r values are referred to Person or Spearman.
L. 402-402: the value of Mg is not the same in the text and in the tab. 2. The values of r for Mg and K are very low and it is necessary to highlight this moderate correlation.
L. 417-420: avoid repetition for ”… PC1 … 46.58% …”.
L. 489-492: The observations are not confirmed by what reported in tab 1 and tab. 2 because they derive from the mathematical elaboration of the reported values. They are simply two different ways of presenting the same experimental result.
The comparison of the physicochemical characteristics with honey samples from other countries would make sense if they were honey with the same botanical characteristics (BW versus BW; CA versus CA; LI versus LI; RS versus RS).
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
The authors would like to warmly thank you for all comments and suggestions, especially the critical ones, aimed at improving the scientific value of the article and eliminating the most important errors. We would like to inform that all Reviewer’s comments and corrections were introduced in amended manuscript.
Authors are greatly appreciate the opportunity that have been given to further revise the manuscript, and believe that Reviewer will share submitted arguments and find this revision fully satisfactory.
Answers and explanations to all the issues raised are given below.
The novelty component of the paper is modest.
Answ. Thank you kindly for this positive comment.
The physicochemical characteristics of the different honey samples cannot be considered in a homogeneous way because the storage times and methods are not rigorously defined with reference to the time of collection from the hive (i.e.: 5-HMF, diastase number, ...).
Answ. We would like to inform that physicochemical measurements were included in this study as an overall comparative characteristics as well as a supplement for the classification of honey variety based on determination of predominant pollen amount.
In principle, the claims refer to the beneficial effect on the human body by antioxidant activity of honey as “… but also exerts antioxidant immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects …” have no scientific meaning as it does not refer to the contribution of antioxidant substances with respect to the daily requirement, deriving from a reasonable consumption of honey (i.e.: 20 g/day).
Answ. Thank you for the important comment. Due to the questionable nature of the opinion, it has been removed and the sentence has been redrafted.
In the introduction, at line 65-67, regarding the phrase "At the same time, due to the rich chemical composition of honey, it can be a healthy substitute for sugar, which is widely used in food and beverages" it makes sense to relate "due to the rich chemical composition of honey" to "can be a healthy substitute for sugar". Rather write, "... due to the rich content in different sugars of honey, it can be a healthy substitute for white sugar".
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable comment. This sentence was redrafted as suggested.
L.198: The values shown in tab. 1 do not comply with BIPM guidelines (https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/2071204/JCGM_100_2008_E.pdf/cb0ef43f-baa5-11cf-3f85-4dcd86f77bd6). The standard deviation has to be represent with significant digits, and the measured value has to represent accordingly.
Answ. Thank you for the important comment. The values in tab. 1 have been unified accordingly.
- 198: In tab. 1, why are two different units of measurement used for DPPH and FRAP, given that the values are comparable?
Answ. Thank you for the important comment. The values of DPPH and FRAP were expressed as mM TE kg-1 throughout the text.
In the results and discussion, at lines 60-61, 212-213, 230-231, 248-249, 297-298, 311-313, 332-333, 406-407, the authors repeat several times concepts that have been known for a long time. This information should only be expressed once in the introduction.
Answ. Thank you very much for this suggestion. Indeed, many statements were unnecessarily repeated in the text, therefore most of them have been removed from lines 230-231, 297-298, 311-313, 332-333, 406-407.
- 255-257: The phrase “The aW value depends mainly on the concentration of glucose, which interacts with water molecules and is the first to crystallize, before fructose” is not sufficient to correctly define the possible variation of the aW content, in relation to any change in the physical state of the honey over time.
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable comment. This sentence was removed.
- 218-219: the pH of AC honey does not differ significantly from BW, RS and MF, therefore it cannot be said that AC is the one with the absolute lowest pH value (based on the values shown in table 1).
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable comment. This sentence was redrafted as suggested.
- 237 and onwards cases: p-value could not be =0.000 but p<0.001.
Answ. Thank you this remark, this error was corrected.
- 273: same comment as at L. 218.
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable comment. This sentence was removed.
- 367-370: in the text is not clear if r values are referred to Person or Spearman.
Answ. Thank you for the important comment. In the text, Pearson correlations are denoted as r= and Spearman correlations as rS=, respectively.
- 402-402: the value of Mg is not the same in the text and in the tab. 2. The values of r for Mg and K are very low and it is necessary to highlight this moderate correlation.
Answ. Thank you this remark, this sentence was removed.
- 417-420: avoid repetition for ”… PC1 … 46.58% …”.
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable comment. Redundant repetitions for PC1 and PC2 were removed.
- 489-492: The observations are not confirmed by what reported in tab 1 and tab. 2 because they derive from the mathematical elaboration of the reported values. They are simply two different ways of presenting the same experimental result.
Answ. Thank you very much for valuable suggestion. This part of text was removed.
The comparison of the physicochemical characteristics with honey samples from other countries would make sense if they were honey with the same botanical characteristics (BW versus BW; CA versus CA; LI versus LI; RS versus RS).
Answ. The authors would like to inform that where a direct comparison between honey varieties was possible, such information was provided, but due to the lack of literature data, they tried to formulate some generalizations referring to all honeys.
Other information
Throughout the text the notation of the p-values has been unified.
Yours faithfully,
Mariusz Florek, Professor
Corresponding author
