Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Geographical and Botanical Origin Discrimination of Romanian Honey Using Complex Stable Isotope Data and Chemometrics

  • Published:
Food Analytical Methods Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Our research is of particular interest in the geographical discrimination of honey from different floral sources and different regions of Romania as support for quality assessment and classification activities, to establish potential origin markers. In this study, stable isotopes selected as representative discrimination parameters of different botanical or geographical origin were determined in 40 honey samples using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and site-specific natural isotopic fractionation measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (SNIF-NMR) methods. Data on δ13C, δ18O, and δ2H of honey measured by IRMS together with the stable isotopes (δ13C and D/H) in ethanol from fermented honeys were reported, and it was demonstrated that the use of δ13C value as single parameter in distinguishing honey floral variety is not practicable. Therefore, a particular emphasis was put on the (D/H)I from ethanol which is specific to a given botanical origin of honey, and its potential in characterizing the substances was highlighted both for assignment of origin and combat of adulteration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anklam E (1998) A review of analytical methods to determine the geographical and botanical origin of honey. Food Chem 63:549–562

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • AOAC Official Method 998.12, C4 Plant Sugars in Honey, AOAC International, Gaithersburg

  • Boffo EF, Tavares LA, Ferreira AG, Ferreira MMC, Tobias ACT (2007) Adulteration study in Brazilian honey by using SNIF and 1H NMR. In: Farhat IA, Belton PS, Webb GA (eds) Magnetic resonance in food science: from molecules to man, Special Publication No. 310. The Royal Society of Chemistry, London, pp 105–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogdanov S, Ruoff K, Persano Oddo L (2004) Physico-chemical methods for the characterisation of unifloral honeys: a review. Apidologie 35:4–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogdanov S, Haldimann M, Luginbühl W, Gallmann P (2007) Minerals in honey: environmental, geographical, and botanical aspects. J Apic Res Bee World 46:269–275

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bogdanov S (2011) Functional and biological properties of the bee products: a review. http://www.bee-hexagon.net/files/file/fileE/Health/BeeProductsFunctional.pdf. Bee Product Science. Accessed 15 June 2013.

  • Chakir A, Romane A, Barbagianni N, Bartoli D, Ferrazzi P (2010) Major and trace elements in different types of Moroccan honey. Aust J Basic Appl Sci 5(4):223–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Cienfuegos E, Casar I, Morales P (1997) Carbon isotopic composition of Mexican honey. J Apic Res 36(314):169–179

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Codex Alimentarius Commission. Revised Codex Standard for Honey, Codex STAN 12-1981, Rev.2 (2001).

  • Consonni R, Cagliani LR, Cogliati C (2013) Geographical discrimination of honeys by saccharides analysis. Food Control 32:543–548

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Coplen TB, Wildman JD, Chen J (1991) Improvements in the gaseous hydrogen water equilibration techniques for hydrogen isotope ratio analysis. Anal Chem 63:910–912

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Coplen TB (2011) Guidelines and recommended terms for expression of stable isotopes ratio and gas ratio measurements. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 25:2538–2560

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Costinel D, Cuna SV, Grecu V, Vremera R (2009) Stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes measurements by CF-IRMS with applications in hydrology studies. J Physics: Conf Ser 182: 012038; IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1742-6596/182/1/012038.

  • Costinel D, Tudorache A, Ionete RE, Vremera R (2011) The impact of grape varieties to wine isotopic characterization. Anal Lett 44(18):2856–2864

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cotte JF, Casabianca H, Chardon S, Lheritier J, Grenier-Loustalot MF (2003) Application of carbohydrate analysis to verify honey authentication. J Chromatogr A 1021:145–155

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cotte JF, Casabianca H, Lheritier J, Perrucchietti C, Sanglar C, Waton H, Grenier-Loustalot MF (2007) Study and validity of 13C stable carbon isotopic ratio analysis by mass spectrometry and 2H site-specific natural isotopic fractionation by nuclear magnetic resonance isotopic measurements to characterize and control the authenticity of honey. Anal Chim Acta 582:125–136

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Donarski JA, Jones SA, Charlton AJ (2008) Application of cryoprobe H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and multivariate analysis for the verification of corsican honey. J Agric Food Chem 56(14):5451–5456

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drivelos SA, Georgiou CA (2012) Multi-element and multi-isotope ratio analysis to determine the geographical origin of food in the European Union. Trends Anal Chem 40:38–51

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elflein L, Raezke KP (2008) Improved detection of honey adulteration by measuring differences between 13C/12C stable carbon isotope ratios of protein and sugar compounds with a combination of elemental analyzer—isotope ratio mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography—isotope ratio mass spectrometry (δ13C-EA/LC-IRMS). Apidologie 39:574–587

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • European Union Directive, Council Directive 2001/110/EC relating to honey, 2002.

  • Jonasson S, Medrano H, Flexas J (1997) Variation in leaf longevity of Pistacia lentiscus and its relationship to sex and drought stress inferred from leaf delta δ13C. Funct Ecol 11(3):282–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerkvliet JD, Meijer HAJ (2000) Adulteration of honey: relation between microscopic analysis and d13C measurements. Apidologie 31:717–726

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kokkinofta R, Theocharis CR, Schou C, Theophanous F, Hadjikyriakou A, Hadjiyiannakou S, Argyrides R, Michael C (2008) Authenticity of Cypriot honey using SNIF-NMR and chemometrics: preliminary results. The 3rd International Conference on the Applications of Magnetic Resonance in Food Science, Reykjavik–Iceland, September 15th-17th 2008. http://www2.matis.is/mrinfood2008/images/stories/posterar/kokkinofta.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2013.

  • Kropf U, Korošec M, Bertoncelj J, Ogrinc N, Nečemer M, Kump P, Golob T (2010) Determination of the geographical origin of Slovenian black locust, lime, and chestnut honey. Food Chem 121:839–846

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lolli M, Bertelli D, Plessi M, Sabatini AG, Restani C (2008) Classification of Italian honeys by 2D HR-NMR. J Agric Food Chem 56(4):1298–1304

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Magdas DA, Cuna S, Cristea G, Ionete RE, Costinel D (2012) Stable isotopes determination in some Romanian wines. Isot Environ Health Stud 48(2):345–353

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martin GJ, Zhang BL, Naulet N, Martin ML (1986) Deuterium transfer in the bioconversion of glucose to ethanol studied by specific isotope labeling at the natural abundance level. J Am Chem Soc 108:5116–5122

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Molan PC (1998) The limitations of the methods of identifying the floral source of honeys. Bee World 79:59–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Panseri S, Manzo A, Chiesa LM, Giorgi A (2013) Melissopalynological and volatile compounds analysis of buckwheat honey from different geographical origins and their role in botanical determination. J Chem. doi:10.1155/2013/904202

    Google Scholar 

  • Petróczi A, Taylor G, Nepusz T, Naughton DP (2010) Gate keepers of EU food safety: four states lead on notification patterns and effectiveness. Food Chem Toxicol 48:1957–1964

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruoff K, Luginbühl W, Künzli R, Iglesias MT, Bogdanov S, Bosset JO, von der Ohe K, von der Ohe W, Amadò R (2006) Authentication of the botanical and geographical origin of honey by mid-infrared spectroscopy. J Agric Food Chem 54:6873–6880

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schellemberg A, Chmelius S, Schlicht C, Camin F, Perini M, Bontempo L (2010) Multielemental stable isotope ratios (H, C, N, S) of honey from different European regions. Food Chem 121:770–777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tosun M (2013) Detection of adulteration in honey samples added various sugar syrups with 13C/12C isotope ratio analysis method. Food Chem 138:1629–1632

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tuzen M, Silici S, Mendil D, Soylak M (2007) Trace element levels in honey from different regions of Turkey. Food Chem 103:325–330

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock T, Downey G, O’Donnell CP (2009) Near infrared spectral fingerprinting for confirmation of claimed PDO provenance of honey. Food Chem 114:742–746

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zappalà M, Fallico B, Arena E, Verzera A (2005) Methods for the determination of HMF in honey: a comparison. Food Control 16:273–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This study has been financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, National Authority for Scientific Research, 19 N/2009 NUCLEU Program, under Project PN 09190205: “Investigations concerning natural products’ characterization and authentication based on their protein profile assessment,” and with the support of the doctoral School “Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science,” Politehnica University of Bucharest. The authors thank the Romanian Apitherapy Society and beekeepers for collecting the samples and C. Dostetan for her technical support.

Conflict of Interest

Oana Romina Dinca declares that she has no conflict of interest. Roxana Elena Ionete declares that she has no conflict of interest. Raluca Popescu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Diana Costinel declares that she has no conflict of interest. Gabriel Lucian Radu declares that he has no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National R&D Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, ICIT Rm. Valcea, 4 Uzinei St, 240050, Rm. Valcea, Romania

    Oana-Romina Dinca, Roxana Elena Ionete, Raluca Popescu & Diana Costinel

  2. Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, Politehnica University of Bucharest, 1-7 Polizu Str, 011061, Bucharest, Romania

    Oana-Romina Dinca & Gabriel-Lucian Radu

Authors
  1. Oana-Romina Dinca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Roxana Elena Ionete
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Raluca Popescu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Diana Costinel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Gabriel-Lucian Radu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roxana Elena Ionete.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dinca, OR., Ionete, R.E., Popescu, R. et al. Geographical and Botanical Origin Discrimination of Romanian Honey Using Complex Stable Isotope Data and Chemometrics. Food Anal. Methods 8, 401–412 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-014-9903-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-014-9903-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation