Discrimination of Quercus pyrenaica honeydew honey through the volatile profile

• Author(s): Falcão, Soraia ; Mouffok, Kheira ; Vilas-Boas, Miguel
• Date: 2023
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/29720
• Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
• Document Type: Conference object
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): Biblioteca Digital do IPB

Description

Honey is a natural product produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of flowers, and called nectar honey, or secretions of plants or excretions produced by plant-sucking insects and called honeydew honey. The production of these honey can be observed in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, where forests of black oak (Quercus pyrenaica) exist, from the honeydew secretions produced in the plant, which result of the insect’s injuries or through phloem sap exudate in its acorns. The aim of this work is the discrimination of the black oak honeydew honey through its volatile profile. For that, forty-two samples, obtained in September of 2021, from four apiaries located in black oak forests within Montesinho Natural Park, Portugal, where characterized by the volatile profile. Also, acorn secretions were collected in Q. pyrenaica trees located near the apiaries. Volatiles were sampled by headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and the chemical identification was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A complex total ion chromatogram was obtained. The alcohols, aldehydes and terpenic derivatives were the most likely to relate the honeydew honey to its botanical origin, being 1-nonanol, α-terpineol, nonanal, hotrienol and phenylethyl alcohol the most abundant volatiles. Compounds such as 2,3-butanediol and cis-linalool oxide were presented and previously described in honeydew honey with forest origin. The above methodology was suitable for the isolation of low-molecular-weight aroma compounds that are important for authentication of Q. pyrenaica honeydew honey.