Honey is of scientific interest mainly due to its health-promoting and antibacterial properties, which are also associated with its floral origins. However, the methods for confirming honey floral origins are quite limited and require improvements. One method suggested in the search for a multi-method approach to evaluating the floral origins of Latvian honey is inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This study investigated the multi-element profile of 83 honey samples of well-specified floral origins. The main findings included using Ba, Ca, Cs, Fe, and Rb as indicator elements for heather honey. The chemometric evaluation supported the use of ICP-MS for distinguishing heather honey from other types of honey. The Latvian polyfloral honey multi-element profile was defined and compared to honey samples with other geographical origins. Additionally, the multi-element profiles of buckwheat, clover, and polyfloral honey proteins were investigated to clarify whether the majority of elements were bound with proteins or not. Preliminary results indicated that Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, and Sr were mainly found in non-protein-bound forms, while the majority of Al, Cu, Ni, and Zn were in the form of large chemical structures (>10 kDa).
Keywords: chemometrics; element profile; floral origins; honey; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; proteins.