Assessing the Content of Phytochemicals in Honey Samples: Polyphenols as Bio-Indicators of Their Botanical Origin †
1
CRETUS, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Chemistry, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2
Agronomic and Agrarian Research Centre (AGACAL-CIAM), Galician Agency for Food Quality, Unit of Organic Contaminants, Apartado 10, E-15080 A Coruña, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Foods—“Future Foods and Food Technologies for a Sustainable World”, 15–30 October 2021; Available online: https://foods2021.sciforum.net/ .
Biol. Life Sci. Forum 2021, 6(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/Foods2021-10936
Published: 13 October 2021
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 2nd International Electronic Conference on Foods—“Future Foods and Food Technologies for a Sustainable World”)
Abstract
:Honey is a natural food product well known for its high nutritional value. Apart from sugars, it contains phytochemicals, including polyphenols and flavonoids, that are compounds with highly demonstrated antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities. The main goal of this work is the development of an analytical methodology to obtain the polyphenolic profile of honeys from different varieties and pollen sources. To isolate the target compounds from the samples, miniaturized vortex (VE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) employing aqueous solvent followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were employed. The results revealed that more than 20 different polyphenols were detected in the analyzed samples among the 40-targeted compounds, reaching total concentrations up to hundreds of µg g−1. Other indexes such as the total polyphenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA) were also evaluated by spectrophotometric techniques. ANOVA and PCA based on the results from TPC, AA and individual polyphenol concentrations showed that significant differences appeared depending on the honey variety, being several of the identified polyphenols, especially hydroxycinnamic acids, responsible for the main differentiation. The results also revealed that two components were enough to explain more than 90% of variance and honey classification in six different groups. Having regard to the occurence and concentrations of individual polyphenols, it is shown that the combination of chromatographic analysis, mass spectrometry detection and PCA are suitable tools to investigate the botanical authentication of honey.
Supplementary Materials
The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/Foods2021-10936/s1, Poster: Assessing The Content of Phytochemicals in Honey Samples: Polyphenols as Bio-Indicators of Their Botanical Origin.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, M.L. and T.D.; methodology, L.V., D.A. and M.C.; validation, L.V. and D.A.; formal analysis, L.V. and D.A.; investigation, L.V., D.A. and M.C.; writing—original draft preparation, M.C.; writing—review and editing, M.C., M.L. and T.D.; supervision, M.L.; project administration, M.L. and T.D.; funding acquisition, M.L. and T.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by project GO FEADER 2018/054B (Xunta de Galicia). The authors belong to the National Network for the Innovation in miniaturized sample preparation techniques, RED2018-102522-T (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spain), and to the Galician Competitive Research Groups IN607B 2019/13 and ED431 2020/06 (Xunta de Galicia). This study is based upon work from the Sample Preparation Study Group and Network, supported by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the European Chemical Society. All these programmes are co-funded by FEDER (EU).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to acknowledge the Regulator Council of Galician Honey (IXP, Mel de Galicia) for collecting and supplying the samples.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Celeiro, M.; Vazquez, L.; Armada, D.; Dagnac, T.; Llompart, M. Assessing the Content of Phytochemicals in Honey Samples: Polyphenols as Bio-Indicators of Their Botanical Origin. Biol. Life Sci. Forum 2021, 6, 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/Foods2021-10936
AMA Style
Celeiro M, Vazquez L, Armada D, Dagnac T, Llompart M. Assessing the Content of Phytochemicals in Honey Samples: Polyphenols as Bio-Indicators of Their Botanical Origin. Biology and Life Sciences Forum. 2021; 6(1):26. https://doi.org/10.3390/Foods2021-10936
Chicago/Turabian StyleCeleiro, Maria, Lua Vazquez, Daniel Armada, Thierry Dagnac, and Maria Llompart. 2021. "Assessing the Content of Phytochemicals in Honey Samples: Polyphenols as Bio-Indicators of Their Botanical Origin" Biology and Life Sciences Forum 6, no. 1: 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/Foods2021-10936
