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Multi-element Analysis of Honey from Amhara Region-Ethiopia for Quality, Bioindicator of Environmental Pollution, and Geographical Origin Discrimination

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Abstract

Honey is a widely utilized sweetener containing mainly sugars with many other minor ingredients such as metallic elements. The analysis aimed to develop a chemometric model for tracing the geographical origin, evaluating nutritional quality, assessing pollution effect, and searching for marker metals for the region’s honey. Forty-seven honey samples were collected directly from the apiarists at seven administrative zones. The contents of 14 metals were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after standard sample digestion. The findings showed us the major elements ranged from 24.8 to 1996 mg/kg of the honey sample with K > Ca > Na > Mg. The minimum and maximum values for the trace metals were 2.35 mg/kg and 163 mg/kg, respectively, in the order of Fe > Cr > Zn > Ni > Mn > Cu > Co. From this data, the region’s honey has its own contribution as a source of major and trace elements. Furthermore, mean values for the toxic heavy metals were 0.57 to 1.85 for Pb, 1.03 to 1.21 for Cd, and 2.85 to 6.21 for As in mg/kg. Thus, the pollution level in the environment seems to be at an alarming rate. Using principal components analysis (PCA), the first four principal components explained 80.16% of the total variation. The region’s honey was best classified into five major clusters using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) with an average discrimination power of 89.91%. The LDA sorting model was verified by the cross-validation method. The verification revealed that the model has 92.11% recognition power and 93.33% prediction ability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Science College, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Mr. Marie Yayinie is greatful to Debre Tabor University, Ethiopia, for sponsering his Ph.D. studuy.

Funding

This work was supported by Bahir Dar University under the Grant number “Mega Project-2019” and author Minaleshewa Atlabachew has received research support from Bahir Dar University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 79, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

    Marie Yayinie & Minaleshewa Atlabachew

  2. Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Science, Debre Tabor University, P.O. Box 272, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia

    Marie Yayinie

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  1. Marie Yayinie
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Correspondence to Marie Yayinie.

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Yayinie, M., Atlabachew, M. Multi-element Analysis of Honey from Amhara Region-Ethiopia for Quality, Bioindicator of Environmental Pollution, and Geographical Origin Discrimination. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 5283–5297 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-03088-0

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