Acids in honey

The amount of organic acids in honey is less than 0.5%. Organic acids can be used as an important indicator of organoleptic properties like color and flavor and physical and chemical properties such as pH, acidity, and electrical conductivity (Crane, 1990). The organic acids in honey also have antibacterial and antioxidant activities (Gheldof et ah, 2002 Weston et ah, 1998). Organic acids in honey can be used as fermentation indicators, or for the treatment of Varroa mite infestation (Calderone, 2000 Mutinelli et ah, 1997) and discriminating between honeys based on their... 

In general, CE is simple, rapid, and low cost because it needs neither laborious treatment of the samples nor long times of analysis. However, its high detection limit is a major limitation of CE. CE is often poorly reproducible. Enzymatic assay is more suitable for quantifying one organic acid in honey samples because it is specific, precise, and accurate. GC is more suitable for analyzing volatile or semivolatile chemicals. HPLC is versatile and reproducible. However, common HPLC detectors such as UV-VIS are not very sensitive for organic aliphatic acids. 

Cherchi, A., Spanedda, L., Tuberoso, C., and Cabras, P. (1994). Solid phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of organic acids in honey. 

Del Nozal, M. J., Bernal, J. L., Diego, J. C., Gomez, L. A., and Higes, M. (2003a). HPLC determination of low molecular weight organic acids in honey with series-coupled ion-exdusion columns. /. Liq. Chromatogr. Relat. Technol. 26,1231-1253. 

Echigo, T. and Takenaka, T. (1974). Production of organic acids in honey by honeybees. Nippon Nogei Kagaku Kaishi 48,225-230. 

Jorg, E. and Sontag, G. (1992). Determination of phenolic acids in honey by HPLC using coulometric dual electrode detection. Dtsch. Lebensm. Rundsh. 88,179-183. 

Mato, I., Huidobro, J. F., Sanchez, M. P., Muniategui, S., Fernandez-Muino, M. A., and Sancho, M. T. (1997). Enzymatic determination of total o-gluconic acid in honey. /. Agric. Food Chem. 45, 3550-3553. 

Mato, 1., Huidobro, J., and Simal-Lozano, J. (2006a). Review Analytical methods for the determination of organic acids in honey. Crit. Rev. Anal. Chem. 36, 3-11. 

Navarrete, M., Casado, S., Minelli, M., Segura, A., Bonetti, A., DinelU, G., and Fernandez, A. (2005). Direct determination of aliphatic acids in honey by coelectroosmotic capillary zone electrophoresis. /. Apicult. Res. 44, 65-70. 

Pawlowska, M. and Armstrong, D. W. (1994). Evaluation of enantiomeric purity of selected amino acids in honey. Chirality 6, 270-276. 

Pilz-Giither, D. and Speer, K. (2004). Development of a GC method for the simultaneous determination of organic acids in honey. Dtsch. Lebensm. Rundsch. 100,84-87. 

Pirini, A. and Conte, L. S. (1992). Capillary gas chromatography determination of free amino acids in honey as a mean of discrimination between different botanical sources. /. Fdigh Res. Chromatogr. 15,165-170. 

Speer, V. K. and Montag, A. (1988). Quantitative determination of aromatic carbonic acids in honey. Z. Lebensm. Unters. Forsch. 187,115-120. 

Sandusky, P. and Raftery, D. (2005). Use of selective TOCSY NMR experiments for quantifying minor components in complex mixtures Application to the metabolomics of amino acids in honey. Anal. Chem. 77, 2455-2463. 

Determination of gluconic acid in honey samples using an integrated electrochemical biosensor based on self-assembled monolayer modified gold electrodes... 

The presence of glucose, fructose, galactose, arabinose and citric, malic and tartaric acid did not produce interference on the quantification of gluconic acid. Only ascorbic acid yielded an amperometric response under the working conditions, due to the electrochemical oxidation of this compound at the applied potential. Nevertheless, the content of gluconic acid in honey samples is remarkably higher than the possible content of ascorbic acid. Consequently, no significant interference should be expected in the analysis of the proposed real samples. 

The biosensor was used for the analysis of gluconic acid in honey samples. No matrix effect was observed and, therefore, the determination was carried out by interpolation of the corresponding amperometric responses into an appropriate calibration graph. 

Results obtained for the determination of gluconic acid in honey samples by using the biosensor and a commercial enzyme kit... 

Plettner E., Slessor K. N. and Winston M. L. (1998) Biosynthesis of mandibular acids in honey bees (Apis mellifera) de novo synthesis, route of fatty acid hydroxylation and caste selective 8-oxidation. Insect Biochem. Molec. Biol. 28, 31-42. 

Derivation Bacterial, chemical, or electrochemical oxidation of glucose. It is the chief acid in honey. 

The natural occurrence of varying amounts of organic acids in honeys from different geographical areas have been documented. Much research is being done to determine the use of honey as an antimicrobial agent in various food systems (Suarez-Luque et al., 2002). 

Suarez-Luque, S., Mato, I., Huidobro, J.F., Simal-Lozano, J., and Sancho, M.T. 2002. Rapid determination of minority organic acids in honey by high-performance liquid chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A 955 207-214. 

Recently, Su ez-Luque et al. developed a method for the analysis of chloride, nitrate, sulfate, phosphate, and formic acid in honey samples by CE with indirect UV detection. The separation was achieved using 2 mM potassium dichromate and 0.05 mM tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), pH 4.00. The detection limit was in the range between 0.03 and 20 mg/kg of the lA. 

OA in milk powder, Cheddar cheese, and plain liquid yogurt lA (chloride, nitrate, sulfate, phosphate) and formic acid in honey... 

---