Authenticity assessment of honeydew honey based on phytochemical profile

Abstract

Considering the health-beneficial properties of honeydew honey and difficulties in its authenticity assessment, a high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) fingerprint method in combination with multivariate analysis was developed, in order to relate phenolic profiles of selected honey samples to their verified botanical origin and biological activity. The HPTLC chromatograms were obtained using two derivatization reagents, vanillin-sulfuric acid and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) solution. Phenolic profiles of samples indicated the uniformity within each honey variety, but also variability among different botanical origin. Chemometric evaluation, including principal component analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis, hyphenated with chromatographic method provided a discriminative and predictive methodology for classification of Hungarian oak, Evergreen oak, Montpellier maple and Silver fir honey samples. The analysis highlighted the significance of specific phenolic compounds (e.g., R_F = 0.31, 0.41, 0.51) for distinguishing the samples, underscoring the potential for accurate botanical authentication of samples, particularly Hungarian oak honey, based on its chemical profile. The HPTLC-DPPH method demonstrated a high potential for differentiating samples based on antioxidant activity, offering an efficient alternative to other techniques for antioxidant activity determination. PLS-DA models successfully predicted the botanical origin of Quercus spp., Evergreen oak and Hungarian oak. This approach can be useful for ensuring the quality control of honeydew honey products, providing an efficient and resource-saving alternative to more advanced analytical techniques. Additionally, caffeic acid emerged as the most potent antioxidant across the selected honeydew honey varieties. This highlights the potential of caffeic acid as a key bioactive compound contributing to the health-promoting properties of honeydew honey.