Physicochemical parameters as indicators of the authenticity of monofloral honey from the territory of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this research was to verify the authenticity of monofloral honeys from the territory of the Republic of Serbia on the basis of physicochemical parameters routinely measured in honey quality control using multivariate analysis. Seventeen samples of monofloral honey (11 samples of acacia honey and 6 samples of sunflower honey) from the territory of the Republic of Serbia were analyzed. Physicochemical analysis of the samples included the examination of basic quality parameters and qualitative and quantitative analyses of phenolic compounds. In the samples tested, a total of 93 phenolic compounds were tentatively identified, and 19 of them were quantified. The obtained physicochemical analysis of the data served as input for the multivariate analysis. The hеаt map, which is useful for visualizing numerical data, was used for this purpose. The obtained results showed that the applied data can serve to clearly separate acacia and sunflower honeys.