title: Preliminary chemometric study on the use of honey as an environmental marker in Galicia (northwestern Spain).
abstract: Thirteen metal elements were determined in 40 honey samples from Galicia with different environmental origins: rural, urban, and industrial areas. The data set of the honey metallic profiles was studied with a double purpose: first, to make a preliminary evaluation of honey as an environmental indicator in Galicia with the aim of monitoring pollution and, second, to compare the different capabilities of diverse pattern recognition prediction procedures for modeling the environmental surrounding of the hive. A certain level of similarity for urban and industrial samples was obtained using principal component analysis and cluster analysis, whereas significant differences for urban and industrial honeys were found in relation to rural honey samples. Different classification rules to associate metal content of honeys with their environmental surrounding were obtained by chemometric pattern recognition procedures. In general, the classification methods developed by neural networks provided better results than the traditional pattern recognition procedures. The metal profiles of honey seem to provide sufficient information to enable categorization criteria for classifying samples according to their environmental surrounding. Thus, honey could be a potential pollution indicator for the Galician area.
authors.affiliation: Departamento Química Analítica, Nutrición y Bromatología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Augas Férreas s/n, Campus Universitario, 27002 Lugo, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rodríguez García
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Iglesias Rodríguez
authors.forename: Rosa María
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Peña Crecente
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barciela García
authors.forename: Sagrario
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: García Martín
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Herrero Latorre
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008670:Metals