School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Bertam, Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
J Food Sci. 2023 Apr;88(4):1466-1481. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.16535. Epub 2023 Mar 15.
The popularity of Malaysian stingless bee honey is rising among health-conscious individuals; thus, chemical and physical evaluations of Malaysian stingless bee honey are vital to ensure the honey has achieved the optimum limits set by Malaysian and international regulatory standards so that it can be commercialized locally and internationally. Therefore, in the present study, the physicochemical characteristics (moisture content, total dissolved solids, pH, free acidity, electrical conductivity, and ash content), antioxidant properties (total phenolic and flavonoid contents), and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) of Heterotrigona itama (H. itama) honey from different sites in Peninsular Malaysia were investigated. Subsequently, the correlation between these chemical and physical parameters was studied using Spearman correlation coefficients. The significant difference between H. itama honey from different topographical origins was studied using univariate analysis (one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey's test). The discrimination pattern of 45 honey samples based on their topographical origins was evaluated using cluster analysis (heatmap and dendrogram) and chemometrics analysis (partial least squares-discriminant analysis). Results showed that some samples of certain parameters (electrical conductivity, free acidity, and moisture content) have exceeded the limit set by the international regulatory standard. However, the 5-HMF content of all samples was within the allowed range. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) has been observed for all the parameters except electrical conductivity and ash content in terms of inter-topographical origins. Although the profiles of H. itama honey from different origins were close, most of them were separated according to their topographical origins and were validated using a permutation test.
马来西亚无刺蜜蜂蜂蜜因其对健康有益而越来越受到人们的欢迎；因此，对马来西亚无刺蜜蜂蜂蜜进行化学和物理评估对于确保蜂蜜达到马来西亚和国际监管标准设定的最佳限量至关重要，以便能够在本地和国际上进行商业化。因此，在本研究中，研究了来自马来西亚半岛不同地区的 Heterotrigona itama（H. itama）蜂蜜的理化特性（水分含量、总溶解固体、pH 值、游离酸度、电导率和灰分含量）、抗氧化特性（总酚和类黄酮含量）和 5-羟甲基糠醛（5-HMF）。随后，使用 Spearman 相关系数研究了这些化学和物理参数之间的相关性。使用单因素方差分析（单因素方差分析 followed by post hoc Tukey's test）研究了来自不同地形起源的 H. itama 蜂蜜之间的显著差异。使用聚类分析（热图和 dendrogram）和化学计量学分析（偏最小二乘判别分析）评估了基于地形起源的 45 个蜂蜜样本的区分模式。结果表明，某些参数（电导率、游离酸度和水分含量）的某些样本已经超过了国际监管标准设定的限量。然而，所有样本的 5-HMF 含量均在允许范围内。除了电导率和灰分含量外，所有参数在不同地形起源之间都存在统计学上的显著差异（p < 0.05）。尽管来自不同起源的 H. itama 蜂蜜的图谱相似，但根据其起源，它们中的大多数都被分离出来，并使用置换检验进行了验证。
