Geographical discrimination of honeys by saccharides analysis

The aim of this work was the geographical discrimination of honey from three different floral sources on the basis of the saccharide content. In particular, multifloral honey from different countries, “high mountain multifloral” and rhododendron honeys from different regions of the northern part of Italy were investigated by means of 1H NMR spectroscopy and modeled with OPLS-DA for accurate samples classification. NMR data allowed a correct geographical discrimination of honeys highlighting the discriminating saccharides. Our results strongly support the capability of NMR and chemometrics to address the quality requirements, thus suggesting its use in quality assessment of honey in terms of geographical determination.

► NMR-based saccharide analysis of honey.
► OPLS-DA modeling of NMR data for geographical differentiation of honeys.
► Identification of characteristic saccharides according to origin.
► Differentiation of honeys from very closely related Italian regions.