The Republic of Serbia is a small European developing country which has a long tradition of honey production. Although Serbia is not a big country, differences in climate, soil and plants provide a solid base for the production of different types of honey. Regardless to beekeeping tradition and annual honey production of about 5000 tones, chemical composition of Serbian honey has not been systematically investigated so far. In scope of studies on Serbian honey authenticity, botanical and geographical origin, in this work the characterization of 350 samples of four types of botanical origin: acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), sunflower (Helianthus annuus), linden (Tilia cordata), and polyfloral honey, was carried out based on carbohydrate content. Besides the two main constituents, the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, different oligosaccharides (trehalose, isomaltose, melezitose, gentiobiose, turanose, maltose, maltotriose, sucrose, isomaltotriose) were determined. Analyses were performed using high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD). The Principal component analysis (PCA) has been performed on the entire data set, in order to reveal the most important factors influencing the grouping pattern among the several honey species.  Acknowledgement: This work has been supported by The Ministry of Education and Science of Serbia, grants No. 172017 and 451-03-2372-IP Type 1/107.

Characterization and classification of Serbian honey based on their carbohydrate content

245th National Meeting (2013)

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