Honey is a natural food substance considered among functional foods due to its positive effect on human health. Quality of honey is significantly influenced by environmental conditions and botanical origin. This study aimed to determine the element content in honey from Kars, Turkey, as well as the bioactive compounds and certain physicochemical and biochemical properties such as hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and color in a chemometric approach. In this study, a total of 41 local honey samples were analyzed. The levels of elements Al, As, B, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, and Pb were determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometer (ICP-OES). The mean concentrations of the elements in the samples were identified as 3.09, 0.64, 59.07, 0.02, 0.14, 0.17, 1.76, 9.32, 0.78, and 0.33 µg/g for Al, As, B, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, and Pb, respectively. The mean bioactive compounds of the honey samples were determined as phenolic content (19.74 mg GAE/100 g), flavonoid content (4.47 mg CE/100 mg), and DPPH (49.08% inhibition). The HMF levels of all samples conformed to the honey standards of the Codex Alimentarius and Turkish Food Codex. HMF was not negatively correlated with the other color parameters except for the a* (redness or greenness) value. This study showed that clustering analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) are useful for distinguishing the originality of honey samples by using element content, bioactive properties, HMF, and color and were useful in defining the Kars honey type.
Keywords: Bioactive; Chemometric; Color; Element; HMF; Honey; ICP-OES.
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