Honey methods

Chemical Composition and Analytical Methods for Discrimination of the Botanical and Geographical Origins of Honeys... 

III. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR DISCRIMINATION OF THE BOTANICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS OF HONEYS... 

The diastase activity was traditionally determined according to the Schade method in the earlier years (Schade et al., 1958). One unit of diastase activity (or more specifically, a-amylase), DN, is defined as that amoimt of enz)nne that converts 0.01 g of starch to the prescribed endpoint in 1 h at 37 °C under the experimental conditions. In this assay, a standard solution of starch, which reacts with iodine to produce a color solution, is used as a substrate for honey enzymes under the standard conditions (Rendleman, 2003). A recently developed procedure uses an insoluble, dyed starch substrate (Persano Oddo and Pulcini, 1999). As this substrate is hydrolyzed by ot-amylase, soluble dyed starch fragments are released into solution. After reaction termination and insoluble substrate removal by centrifugation, absorbance of the supernatant solution (at 620 nm) is measured. The absorbance is proportional to the diastase activity. This procedure has been widely adopted in the honey industry due to the convenience of a commercially available substrate and the simple assay format. 

Anklam, E. (1998). A review of the analytical methods to determine the geographical and botanical origin of honey. Food Chem. 63, 549-562. 

Bogdanov, S., Ruoff, K., and Persano Oddo, L. (2004). Physico-chemical methods for the characterisation of unifloral honeys A review. Apidologie 35, S4—S17. 

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. 

Persano Oddo, L. and Pulcini, P. (1999). A scientific note on the Phadebas method for honeys with low enzyme content. Apidologie 30, 347-348. 

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. 

Siede, R., Schmidt, C., and Biichler, R. (2004). A PCR based apple detection method as a complementary instrument for the honey quality assessment. Dtsch. Lebensm. Rundsch. 100, 381-384. 

Tourn, M. L., Lombard, A., Belliardo, F., and Buffa, M. (1980). Quantitative analysis of carbohydrates and organic acids in honeydew, honey and royal jelly by enzymic methods. J. Apicult. Res. 19,144 146. 

White, J. W. (1992). Internal standard stable carbon isotope ratio method for determination of C-4 plant sugars in honey Collaborative trial study, and evaluation of improved protein preparation procedure. J. Assoc. Ojfic. Anal. Chem. 75,543-548. 

Another extension of the DFG S19 method was achieved by applying it successfully to foodstuffs of animal origin such as whole milk and egg, muscle meat, offal, fat and honey. Depending on water and fat content, either water-acetone (e.g. for milk, meat, possibly egg and honey) or acetone-acetonitrile (e.g. for offal, egg, fat) solvent extraction is preferable. When high fat or oil contents in the raw extract are expected,... 

Although SPME was applied initially for the analysis of relatively volatile environmental pollutants in waters, rapid developments have enabled SPME to be successfully applied for the analysis of pesticides in water, wine and more complex food samples such as honey, fruit juice and pears, vegetables and strawberries. With food samples, most analysts recognize the need for some sample pretreatment in order to minimize matrix effects. The matrix can affect the SPME efficiency, resulting in a reduced recovery of pesticides. The most common method is simply to dilute the sample or sample extract with water. Simpltcio and Boas comminuted pears in water prior to the determination of pesticides. Volante et al. extracted over 100 pesticides... 

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