title: Usefulness of amino acid composition to discriminate between honeydew and floral honeys. Application to honeys from a small geographic area.
abstract: With the aim of finding methods that could constitute a solid alternative to melissopalynological and physicochemical analyses to determine the botanical origin (floral or honeydew) of honeys, the free amino acid content of 46 honey samples has been determined. The honeys were collected in a small geographic area of approximately 2000 km(2) in central Spain. Twenty-seven honey samples were classified as floral and 19 as honeydew according to their palynological and physicochemical analyses. The resulting data have been subjected to different multivariant analysis techniques. One hundred percent of honey samples have been correctly classified into either the floral or the honeydew groups, according to their content in glutamic acid and tryptophan. It is concluded that free amino acids are good indicators of the botanical origin of honeys, saving time compared with more tedious analyses.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Madrileño de Investigación Agraria y Alimentaria, IMIA, Finca El Encín, Apartado 127, 28800 Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
authors.forename: María Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Iglesias
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Lorenzo
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Del Carmen Polo
authors.forename: Pedro Jésus
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Martín-Alvarez
authors.forename: Encarnacíon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pueyo
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D028462:Cucumis; D035264:Flowers; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000032:analysis; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification*; D013030:Spain; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D014364:Tryptophan