Honey major protein characterization and its application to adulteration detection

The major proteins in honey have different molecular weights depending upon the honeybee species. To confirm the origin of major honey proteins, honey protein produced by Apis cerana or Apis mellifera were purified and analyzed by MALDI-TOF. Two major proteins were identified as a major royal jelly protein 1. Although two major proteins shared primary structure, they showed different molecular weights of 56 and 59 kDa, respectively. To discriminate the honeybee species producing honey using SDS–PAGE, artificial marker proteins, 56 and 59 kDa, were produced from Escherichia coli. Two artificial marker proteins were co-electrophoresed with honey samples and the difference in molecular weight was readily distinguished by SDS–PAGE. Therefore, the measurement of major proteins in honey is a useful method to discriminate the honey that produced from different honeybee species.