Phenolic acids and flavonoids profiles of commercial honey from different floral sources and geographic sources

Honey is a natural sweetener produced by honey bees from the secretions of plants. Honey is well-known for its nutritional and medicinal values since prehistoric times. In the present study, 40 honey samples were collected from supermarkets in China. These samples were produced in China and also imported from other countries. These samples were explored for the detection of 16 phenolic acids and 14 flavonoids by employing high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Among the phenolic compounds explored, gallic acid (phenolic acid) and chrysin (flavonoid) were found to be the most dominant phenolic compounds. The phenolic profile of honey samples was greatly influenced by geographical location and floral sources. The classification of honey samples collected from various regions and floral sources (unifloral and multi-floral) were carried out using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and it was observed that certain phenolic compounds significantly contributed towards the classification of honey samples collected from various geographical origin and floral source. Thus, this systematic study provides a fundamental knowledge of honey quality for therapeutic product development.