Affiliations 

  • 1 Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Plant Biotechnology Research Centre, Agro-Biotechnology Institute Malaysia, National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 International Institute for Halal Research and Training, Level 3, KICT Building, International Islamic University Malaysia, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 5 Research and Instrumentation Section, Department of Chemistry Malaysia, Jalan Sultan, 46661 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Centre for Marker Discovery and Validation (CMDV), Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 7 Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: amalia@upm.edu.my
Food Chem, 2024 Jan 19;444:138429.
PMID: 38330597 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.138429

Abstract

Stingless bee honey's nutritional value is gaining attention, but the impact of harvesting seasons, specifically the rainy (September 2018) and dry (February 2019) seasons in Malaysia on the honey's physicochemical properties and volatile compounds remains insufficiently explored. This research revealed marginal differences in the physicochemical properties between seasons. However, through individual bee species and cumulative data analysis, honey samples were effectively differentiated based on harvesting seasons. A set of seventeen volatile compounds were identified as potential chemical markers for distinguishing H. bakeri, G. thoracica, and T. binghami honey between rainy and dry seasons. For cumulative data, four significant markers were proposed. These discrimination methods and chemical markers can serve as valuable references in distinguishing stingless bee honey, whether its entomological origin is specified or not between rainy and dry seasons.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.