'Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Tecnologias'
Abstract
Honey is a natural product produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of flowers, and called
nectar honey, or secretions of plants or excretions produced by plant-sucking insects and called
honeydew honey. The production of these honey can be observed in the north of the Iberian Peninsula,
where forests of black oak (Quercus pyrenaica) exist, from the honeydew secretions produced in the
plant, which result of the insect’s injuries or through phloem sap exudate in its acorns. The aim of
this work is the discrimination of the black oak honeydew honey through its volatile profile. For that,
forty-two samples, obtained in September of 2021, from four apiaries located in black oak forests
within Montesinho Natural Park, Portugal, where characterized by the volatile profile. Also, acorn
secretions were collected in Q. pyrenaica trees located near the apiaries. Volatiles were sampled by
headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and the chemical identification was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A complex total ion chromatogram was obtained.
The alcohols, aldehydes and terpenic derivatives were the most likely to relate the honeydew honey
to its botanical origin, being 1-nonanol, α-terpineol, nonanal, hotrienol and phenylethyl alcohol the
most abundant volatiles. Compounds such as 2,3-butanediol and cis-linalool oxide were presented
and previously described in honeydew honey with forest origin. The above methodology was suitable
for the isolation of low-molecular-weight aroma compounds that are important for authentication
of Q. pyrenaica honeydew honey.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
