Determination of Volatile Organic Compound Patterns Characteristic of Five Unifloral Honey by Solid-Phase Microextraction−Gas Chromatography−Mass Spectrometry Coupled to Chemometrics

• Published in: Journal of agricultural and food chemistry Vol. 54; no. 19; pp. 7235 - 7241
• Main Authors: Baroni, María Verónica, Nores, María Laura, Díaz, María Del Pilar, Chiabrando, Gustavo Alberto, Fassano, Juan Pablo, Costa, Cristina, Wunderlin, Daniel Alberto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 20-09-2006
• Subjects: 1-Octanol - analysis; Aldehydes - analysis; Biological and medical sciences; chemometrics; Confectionery products and chocolate industries, honey; Coumarins - analysis; floral origins; Flowers; food composition; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gas chromatography; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods; Guaiacol - analysis; headspace analysis; honey; Honey - analysis; Honey - classification; mass spectrometry; microextraction; qualitative analysis; solid phase extraction; unifloral honey; volatile compounds; Volatilization; Solid phase microextraction; Origin; Honey; SPME; Solid gas chromatography; volatile organic compounds; floral origin; Volatile organic compound; Mass spectrometry; Chemometrics
• ISSN: 0021-8561; 1520-5118
• DOI: 10.1021/jf061080e

We report the evaluation of the floral origin of honey by analysis of its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile, joined with the use of combined pattern recognition techniques. Honey samples, from five floral origins, were analyzed by headspace solid-phase microextraction−gas chromatography−mass spectrometry, selecting 35 VOCs out of the entire profiles, which were analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA), and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN). Both HCA and SDA were used as exploratory tools to select a group of VOCs representing similitude and differences among studied origins. Thus, six out of 35 VOCs were selected, verifying their discriminating power by KNN, which afforded 93% correct classification. Therefore, we drastically reduced the amount of compounds under consideration but kept a good differentiation between floral origins. Selected compounds were identified as octanal, benzeneacetaldehyde, 1-octanol, 2-methoxyphenol, nonanal, and 2-H-1-benzopyran-2-one. The analysis of VOC profiles, coupled to HCA, SDA, and KNN, provides a feasible alternative to evaluate the botanical source of honey. Keywords: Honey; floral origin; SPME; volatile organic compounds