Colombian stingless bee honeys characterized by multivariate analysis of physicochemical properties Yaneth Cardona, Alexandra Torres, Wolfgang Hoffmann To cite this version: Yaneth Cardona, Alexandra Torres, Wolfgang Hoffmann. Colombian stingless bee honeys charac- terized by multivariate analysis of physicochemical properties. Apidologie, 2019, 50 (6), pp.881-892. 10.1007/s13592-019-00698-5. hal-03042818 HAL Id: hal-03042818 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03042818 Submitted on 7 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Apidologie (2019) 50:881–892 Original article * INRA, DIB and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature, 2019 DOI: 10.1007/s13592-019-00698-5 Colombian stingless bee honeys characterized by multivariate analysis of physicochemical properties Yaneth CARDONA, Alexandra TORRES, Wolfgang HOFFMANN Departamento de Química, Grupo de Biocalorimetría, Universidad de Pamplona, km 1 Vía Bucaramanga, Pamplona, Colombia Received 4 February 2019 – Revised 23 August 2019 – Accepted 9 October 2019 Abstract – In this study, which took place from August 2014 to August 2015, we looked at the physicochemical properties of honey produced by seven species of stingless bees and the honey bee (Apis mellifera ). Every 2 months, we took honey samples from the Apis mellifera , Melipona fuscipes , Melipona favosa favosa ,andMelipona compressipes , and every 3 months, samples were taken of Trigona (Frieseomelitta ) nigra , Scaptotrigona sp., Nannotrigona sp. ,andTrigona (Tetragonisca ) angustula. The results showed that the physicochemical properties depend on bee species (p < 0.05) and not on the time of year (p > 0.05). In addition, the samples were 97.2% correctly classified using multivariate analysis. We found that the water content, refractive index, total sugars, total acidity, diastase, pH, and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) have a discriminant power of p < 0.05 honey / stingless bees / physicochemical properties / Melipona species / multivariate analysis 1. INTRODUCTION than 20% in A. mellifera honey and 20–40% in pot honey. Therefore, further investigations on pot Honey is a complex mixture made by bees honey properties are required to improve its con- from the nectar of flowers or honeydew. The most sumption and to protect the bees and their natural common and commercialized honey worldwide is habitat (Bijlsma et al. 2006;Chuttongetal.2016). produced by Apis mellifera ; however, in tropical Most investigations related to physical proper- countries, there are stingless bees. These bees are ties and the chemical composition of honeys are considered “stingless” because the size of the related to the different types of honeys sting is greatly reduced and its vestigial nature (monofloral and multifloral from nectar and hon- makes it difficult to utilize this mechanism eydew honey) produced by Apis mellifera ,and (Torres et al. 2007;Dardónetal.2013). Stingless there are few studies of honeys produced by sting- bees produce a specific type of honey called “pot less bees (Vit et al. 1998). Due to the limited honey” because it is stored in pot-shaped wax number of studies focused on stingless bee honey containers. Several studies have shown that pot (Vit et al. 1998), Vit et al. (1998) recommended to honey and honey bee honey have dissimilar collect information from different sources and values regarding their physicochemical proper- build up a common database with harmonized ties, especially moisture content, which is less methods of analysis of quality factors of pot honey in order to develop adequate standards for these honeys. Most studies related to physicochemical Corresponding author: A. TORRES, properties of these honeys can be found in Pot [email protected] Honey: A Legacy of Stingless Bees ,whichsum- Manuscript editor: James Nieh marizes its relationships with the diversity of 882 Yaneth CARDONA et al. species, geographic factors, importance in agricul- (M. compressipes )(Vitetal.1994; tural and natural ecosystems, chemical character- Fuenmayor et al. 2013), and 0.04–1.72% istics, and its applications in different fields (A. mellifera) (Alqarni et al. 2014; Boussaid (Roubik et al. 2013). et al. 2014; Karabagias et al. 2014a, b, d; Multivariate analysis techniques have been Özcan and Ölmez 2014). There are no pub- used to determine the geographical origin of hon- lications about ash content of honey pro- ey based on free amino acid content (Gilbert et al. duced by T. nigra and M. fuscipes . 1981). These techniques were used to classify and Additionally, the ash content of different types differentiate nectar and honeydew honeys accord- of honey produced by A. mellifera was deter- ing to physicochemical and palynological param- mined to be primarily botanical in origin, meaning eters (Bentabol Manzanares et al. 2011;Cardona that the ash content depended on location and the et al. 2017), to predict the entomological origin of floral resources available to the bee (Esti et al. stingless bee honeys based on compositional fac- 1997; Felsner et al. 2004). This property has been tors (Vit et al. 1998), and to classify honey from used in conjunction with microscopic and organ- different botanical origins (Persano Oddo et al. oleptic characteristics of honey, which differenti- 1988). ate honeydew honey from blossom honey (Terrab The quality of honey depends on its com- et al. 2004; Habib et al. 2014; Karabagias et al. position and physicochemical properties. How- 2014a, b, d;Bettaretal.2015). ever, these values vary depending on the floral The electrical conductivity values reported in sourcevisitedbythebee.Bearinginmindthat the literature are M. favosa (0.44–2.06 mS/cm) the vegetation from which the bees collect (Bogdanov et al. 1996; Vit et al. 1998), nectar, and depending on the weather and sea- M. compressipes (0.32–8.77 mS/cm) (Vit et al. son, it is possible that there exists differences 1994; Souza and Bazlen 1998), T. nigra (1.04 ± in physicochemical properties of honeys col- 0.26 mS/cm) (Bogdanov et al. 1996), lected in different seasons due to the variation T. angustula (0.66–7.3 mS/cm) (Vit et al. 1998; of floral resources. In this study, we present for Fuenmayor et al. 2012), and Scaptotrigona sp. the first time the values of physicochemical (0.39–2.9 mS/cm) (Vit et al. 1998; Fuenmayor properties as observed during 1 year (in both et al. 2013). The reported pH values of honey dry and rainy periods) in honeys produced by for Apis mellifera are 3.20 to 6.10 (White 1975, several species of stingless bees, which include 1978). Trigona nigra , T. angustula , Scaptotrigona sp. , Nannotrigona sp., Melipona compressipes , 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Melipona favosa favosa ,andMelipona fuscipes . We compared these with Apis mellifera honey 2.1. Honey samples from Norte de Santander, Colombia. To classify these honeys, we used principal component anal- Honey samples were collected from sealed honey ysis (PCA). pots of stingless bee hives located in three towns in Some physicochemical properties of Norte de Santander, Colombia, from August 2014 to honeys produced by stingless bees from August 2015: every 3 months for: T. nigra , countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Bra- T. angustula (Los Patios), Scaptotrigona sp., zil, Guatemala, and Mexico have been report- Nannotrigona sp. (Pamplonita); and every 2 months ed to contain ash contents of 0.2–7.7% for: M. fuscipes (Pamplonita), A. mellifera (Carmen (T. angustula ) (Santiesteban-Hernández de Tonchalá), M. favosa ,andM. compressipes (Los et al. 2003; Fuenmayor et al. 2012), 0.06– Patios). 0.31% (Scaptotrigona sp.) (Vit et al. 1998; Honey samples were protected from the light at Fuenmayor et al. 2013), 0.33% a room temperature of ~ 20 °C. The sampling time (Nannotrigona sp.) (Fuenmayor et al. 2013), and the places where bees are located were select- 0.01–29% (M. favosa )(Vitetal.1994; ed due the quantity of honey that they produce and Fuenmayor et al. 2013), 0.09–0.30% its availability, respectively. Colombian stingless bee honeys characterized by multivariate analysis of physicochemical properties 883 2.2. Physicochemical parameters 3030). The refractive index values were then con- verted to water percentage using the Wedmore The physicochemical parameters measured in equation (E. 1995). the honeys were ash content, pH, moisture per- centage, acidity (free, lactonic, and total), electri- 2.2.6. Diastase activity cal conductivity, diastase activity, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and total sugar The diastase activity was determined by mea- content. The methodology proposed by The Offi- suring the velocity of hydrolysis of starch in a cial Methods of Analysis of the Association of buffer solution of honey at 40 °C. The final point Official Analytical Chemists (Association of of this reaction was determined measuring the Official Analytical Chemists 1990; absorbance at 660 nm in a spectrophotometer AOACInternational 2000) and the International UV-Vis (Shimadzu, UV-2401PC, Japan). Honey Commission (2009) was used to determine all parameters in triplicate (Commission 2009). 2.2.7. Hydroxymethylfurfural 2.2.1. Ash content HMF content was determined after clarifying honey samples with Carrez reagents (I and II) and Two grams of honey was evaporated at 200 °C mixed with sodium bisulfite. Absorbance was with a hot-plate magnetic stirrer (Boeco, MSH measured at 284 and 336 nm in a spectrophotom- 300, Hamburg, Germany) then heated to 550 °C eter (Shimadzu, UV-2401PC, Japan). for6hinamufflefurnace(Vulcan3-550, Germany). 2.2.8. Total sugar content 2.2.2. Electrical conductivity The total sugar content was determined at 20 °C with an Abbe refractometer (0–95 °Bx, Brixco, Electrical conductivity was measured at 20 °C model 3030).