Detecting adulteration of stingless bee honey using untargeted H-1 NMR metabolomics with chemometrics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-30-2022
Abstract
As stingless bee honey (SBH) is gaining in popularity in the Malaysian market, it is now prone to adulteration. The higher price of SBH compared to floral honey has led to the use of unusual adulterants such as vinegar and even floral honey to mimic the unique taste and appearance of SBH. Since the current AOAC 998.12 method fails to detect these adulterants as their delta C-13 values are in the range for C-3 plants, untargeted H-1 NMR metabolomics was proposed. Principal component analysis of SBH H-1 NMR fingerprints was able to distinguish authentic SBHs from adulterated ones down to 1% adulteration level for selected adulterants. Discriminant analysis showed promising results in distinguishing the preliminary datasets of authentic SBHs from the adulterated ones, including discriminating SBHs adulterated with different adulterants derived from C-3 and C-4 plants. Hence, to assure any emerging adulterant can be detected, all H-1 NMR regions should be considered.
Keywords
Chemometrics, Honey adulteration, Metabolomics, NMR, Stingless bee honey
Divisions
pharmacy
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) [Grant No: USM 203/PTEKIND/6711612],Kuok Foundation
Publication Title
Food Chemistry
Volume
368
Publisher
Elsevier Science Ltd
Publisher Location
THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, OXON, ENGLAND