Niedersächsisches Landesamt Niedersachsen für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit

European Honeydew Honeys Werner von der Ohe, Martina Janke, Katharina von der Ohe LAVES Institut für Bienenkunde Celle Honeydew honeys are well-known in European countries. Especially in Germany they can achieve quite high prices. Honeydew is a excretion of plant sucking insects with a high content. Contrary to most honeys honeydew Honeydew producers honeys have red brown to dark brown colour, a Most honeydew producers strong, herb-malty aroma, high electrical belong to the insect group of conductivity, lower amount of and Hemiptera. , significant higher amounts of Especially Coccina, Aphidina, Physokermes hemicryphus on spruce tree oligosaccharides as well as microscopic visible as well as Auchenorrhyncha are honeydew elements. important in European countries.

Honeydew production Beside floral and extrafloral nectar honeydew is an other source used by bees to produce . With their mouthparts honeydew producing insects stick into

the phloem an drink the phloem . They need Cinara pilicornis on spruce tree Honeydew from Physokermes hemicryphus especially the higher molecules which are in a lower on spruce tree concentration in the phloem sap. Smaller molecules like water and are in some aphids filtered through membranes just after intake and transported directly to the end of the digestive tract. Bigger molecules like peptides etc. will be digested in the midgut supported by bacteria. Phloem sap will be transferred to honeydew by enzymes of aphids and their endosymbionts during digestion. Honeydew can occur as a drop at the anus of the insects (e.g. Physokermes hemicryphus) or will be squirt off (egg Honeydew from Physokermes spec. Eucallipterus tiliae). on fir tree (A. cephalonica) GR Oak sap on Quercus conferta (© N. Kezic)

Honey analyses: Honeydew honeys Unifloral honeys (N > 4000) can be distinguished from nectar Unifloral honeys (N > 4000) Unifloral honeys (N > 4000) elektrical conductivity (green = X +/- SD; red = total range) Fructose content (blue = X +/- SD; red = total range) Glucose (yellow = X +/- SD; red = total range) honeys. In some cases there are also 55 50 2 1,8 subtle distinctions between honeydew 50 45 1,6 45 1,4 honeys from different honeydew 40 1,2 40 1 producers and plants. The differences 35

mS/cm 0,8 35 0,6 30 you can see mainly in electrical 30 0,4 g Glucose g Honig 100g / 0,2 gHonig Fructose 100g / 25 25 0 conductivity, aroma, colour, sugar 20 20 Fir Oak Fir

spectra as well as microscopic visible Fir Tilia Tilia Oak Tilia Oak Spruce Calluna Robinia Brassica Spruce Spruce Calluna Robinia Calluna Robinia Phacelia Castanea Phacelia honeydew elements. The following Phacelia Brassica Brassica Fir/Spruce Centaurea Honeydew Castanea Helianthus Castanea Fir/Spruce Fir/Spruce Centaurea Honeydew Centaurea Honeydew Taraxacum Helianthus Helianthus Taraxacum graphs are extracts of our honey data Taraxacum bank with more than 4000 data sets of unifloral honeys.

Different origin: In cooperation with Definition “Honeydew Honey” tube members of International Honey Due to EU directive for honey Commission (IHC) we got 70 honeydew (2001/110/EG) a botanical origin can honey from different countries which are be pointed out “if the product comes specific for these countries. Due to the wholly or mainly from the indicated parameters sensory analyses, sugar source and posses the organoleptic, spectra (e.g. Melezitose, Raffinose und physico-chemical and microscopic Spruce honey (D) L2) and honeydew elements you can Fir honey (D) characteristics of the source”. distinguish between some honeydew Honeydew honeys should be “mainly honeys like spruce, fir, oak and from excretions of plant sucking metcalfa. Conspicuous is that special insects on the living part of plants or honeydew honeys from different countries secretions of living parts of plants”. have the same characteristics wax wool

IHC Honeydew Honeys 2008 Melezitose, Raffinose and L2 fine-grained mass

3,5 3,0 Pine honey (GR) Metcalfa honey (I) 2,5 2,0 coarse-grained mass 1,5 European data bank 1,0 0,5 The next step will be to collect data

content of (g of / sugars content 100g) 0,0 honeydew fir (n=14) spruce (n=9) pinus (n=3) oak (n=11) metcalfa (n=8) sets of honeydew honeys from honey (n=11) honeydew honeys of several european countries different European labs. These

Melezitose Raffinose L2 data will be analyzed and discussed within IHC and later on should be published, like “Unifloral honeys” in Apidologie in 2004. Oak honey (BG) Honeydew honey from NEP