Element content of Yemeni honeys as a long-time marker to ascertain honey botanical origin and quality

•Element content of the expensive Yemeni honeys was determined.•Element content was highly reproducible over 3 years.•Element content was floral dependent.•Element content should be used to ascertain honey quality after war.

This work was aimed at studying variations in the element content of five famous Yemeni honeys of different floral origin. For this purpose, samples of honey were collected over three years from four mono-floral and one multi-floral honey. Element levels were determined by ICP-AES. Results show a highly reproducible level of element for each honey type and a significant change in element content in honey as a function of the floral source. In addition to demonstrating the impact of the floral origin on Yemeni-honey mineral content, our compiled values will be highly useful to ascertain honey quality once Yemen will return to less-trouble times.