ABSTRACT
There
are many studies that compare the quality and biological characteristics of
honey with distinct geographical and botanical origins. However, the physico-chemical
and biological properties of different types of honey in the same production
regions are rarely mentioned. The honey used in this study: sunflower honey,
rapeseed honey, manna honey and polyflora honey, came from
GT “Malai C” in Taraclia village, Causeni district in the southern part of the
Republic of Moldova and belonged to the
flowering season of year 2020. Following the polynecological analysis, it was
found that two types of honey are monofloral with a dominant pollen content of Helianthus spp. (49.15% - 93.12%) in sunflower honey and Brassica spp. (52.17% - 70.11%) in rapeseed honey. Mana honey and polyflora contain
several types of pollen. Thus, four types were identified in manna honey,
including: Acer platanoides (29.11% - 30.11%), Quercus robur (28.67% - 29.99%), Rubus idaeus (21.55% - 28.78%), Taraxacum officinale (22.21% - 28.76%). Polyflora honey contains: Helianthus annuus (24.91% - 31.11%), Brassica napus (23.45% - 29.18%), Tilia (28.95% - 31.92%). Based on a Pfund scale, it was found that the color
of the honey varied from a lighter shade for rapeseed honey (water amber 7.66 ±
3.002 mm) to a darker color for sunflower honey and polyflora (extra light
amber 34.366 ± 21.01 mm and 36.04 ± 1.115 mm respectively). Spectrophotometric
determination of phenolic compounds in honey samples showed that their content
ranged from 38.18 mg GAE/kg honey for rapeseed honey to 831.09 mg GAE/kg honey
for manna honey. At the same time, the flavonoid content ranged from 28.41 mg
QUE/kg honey for rapeseed honey to 151.72 mg QUE/kg honey for manna honey. Mana
honey showed a better antioxidant activity than the other honey samples in the
study (72.03%). The reported results suggest that manna honey has the best
potential and its consumption in the human diet as food with valuable
biological properties can be encouraged, despite the fact that in the Republic
of Moldova it is in a small amount.