Background: Honey is a natural product used as food, medicine, or cosmetics for very long time and is made by bees. Honey contains various components such as sugar, protein, minerals, and vitamins. Honey is made by Apis cerana or Apis mellifera, which commonly has major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) as a major protein. To discriminate between natural honey (NH) and artificial honey (AH), many researchers tried method of physicochemical analysis. However, the analysis results were ambiguous and not stable.
Results: We have produced a monoclonal antibody that recognizes MRJPs of honeys in common. Monoclonal antibody has advantage such as accuracy, sensitivity, and stability as the standard. The specificity and affinity of produced antibody were measured by western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. As a result, this monoclonal antibody specifically recognized MRJPs of NH and did not recognize AH which has not including MRJPs.
Conclusion: Natural honey could be able to distinguish from AH accurately by using this monoclonal antibody. Also, this method could be commercially applicable.
Keywords: ELISA; artificial honey; monoclonal antibody; natural honey.