Volatile metabolites or pollen characteristics as regional markers of monofloral thyme honey?. Issue 2 (26th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Karabagias, Ioannis Konstantinos
• Is Part Of: Separation science plus. Volume 1:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2018-01-26
• Subjects: headspace solid‐phase microextraction -- metabolomic profiles -- pollen grains -- regional markers -- volatiles; Chromatographic analysis -- Periodicals; 543.8
• DOI: 10.1002/sscp.201700027
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2573-1815

Abstract

Abstract: Thirty‐one monofloral thyme honeys were collected from professional beekeepers from four different regions in Greece during harvesting year 2012–2013. Aqueous solutions of honeys were subjected to headspace solid‐phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography with mass spectrometry to record complete volatile pattern, whereas pollen screening was accomplished using the melissopalynological analysis. The primary objective was to investigate the volatile pattern and whether specific volatile metabolites or pollen grain percentages could serve as regional markers. Results showed that 37 volatile compounds, belonging to different classes, were identified and semi‐quantified, using the internal standard method. Application of multivariate analysis showed that ten volatile metabolites recorded significant variations ( p <0.05) according to geographical origin of thyme honey. Linear discriminant analysis classified honeys according to geographical origin providing a classification rate of 92.3% using the cross validation method based on the statistically significant volatile metabolites. This was not the case for the overall correct classification rate based on pollen grain percentages which was only 51.6%. Volatile compounds analysis, apart from the specific information on the development of monofloral thyme honey aroma, proved to be a fast and more accurate tool for its discrimination according to production area, compared to melissopalynology.