Quality characterization and botanical origin delineation of Greek honeydew and nectar honey based on poly-parametric determinations and chemoinformatics

To characterize the quality based on the occurrence of pharmaceutically active substances or toxic metals, and determine the botanical origin of honeydew and nectar honey, 50 honey samples were subjected to multi-parametric determinations: i) antibiotics and sulfonamides, ii) moisture, total sugars, electrical conductivity, free acidity, pH, Pfund color, diastase, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity (set A), along with iii) minerals (set B). Results showed that antibiotics or sulfonamides were below the limit of quantification (0.5–2 μg/kg), whereas traces of toxic metals (As, Be, Cd, Cr, Pb) were determined according to the European directives. The data (sets A and B) were subjected to chemoinformatics, and samples were classified according to botanical origin using linear discriminant analysis: 74 % in both cases, and 80 % when data were combined, according to the cross-validation method. In addition, factor and partial least squares analyses highlighted the key parameters that were associated more with the honey type.