Analysis of phenolic acids and flavonoids in honey

Abstract

Honey is a natural product well known for its sweetness, medical importance and its physical and chemical properties. It can be used without processing. This project concerns the analysis of Lebanese honey samples, collected from various geographical and botanical sources, to determine their total phenolic contents and total flavonoid contents and to compare these values and to test the antioxidant and the antimicrobial activities of each sample. The results show that all samples contained an important amount of phenolic acids but no significant flavonoid content. Honey samples obtained from Quercus species contained the highest amounts of phenolic acids. Similarly, all samples showed high antioxidant activity with maximum values for unifloral Quercus species. The antimicrobial activity of all Lebanese honey samples was not of significant importance where most of the samples did not show bactericidal effect. The results also show that there is a difference in phenolic contents between two samples produced from the same type of flora. This may pose questions about other factors that might be contributing to this difference, such as altitude and forced sugar feeding.