Analysis of honey main sugars by size-exclusion chromatography
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
The main constituents of honey are sugars, mainly the monosaccharides fructose and
glucose (reducing sugars), which account for 80% of the total mass, while the
disaccharides (especially sucrose and maltose) represent 10%. In general, fructose
predominates (giving a sweeter taste to honey than sucrose), although, in some honeys,
glucose (that assigns a less sweet taste than sucrose but more than maltose) may be the
main sugar. The fructose/glucose mass ratio is a parameter that allows the identification
of possible adulterations of honey, by signaling abnormal levels of glucose due to the
addition of commercial glucose or syrups. It also allows assessing the crystallization trend
of the honey, although the glucose/water ratio provides a more accurate indication of this
behavior. Therefore, for marketing purposes, the quantification of glucose and fructose in
honey is a key factor for establishing its quality. This work reports the validation of a
method for determination of honey sugars by SEC to be used as control in the study of
their determination with an electronic tongue.
A set of honey samples was provided by the Portuguese National Federation of
Beekeepers to obtain a national sampling which showed the natural composition
variability of Portuguese honeys. The analysis were carried out with HPLC equipment from
Varian and a Supelcogel C-610H column, selected because the elution does not require
organic solvents. The target compounds to analyze were glucose and fructose for which
well separated peaks were found in the chromatograms, which included other two, for a
mix of polyssacharides and unknown substance(s).
The results of a thorough validation showed that the method can be employed for
quantification of these two sugars in honey samples.
