Dados do Trabalho

Título

PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS AS AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY FOR CANUDO-DE-PITO (Escallonia sp.) HONEY DISCRIMINATION

Introdução

Honey is a foodstuff that distinguishes itself for its natural production, sugar content, mineral composition, enzymes, phenolic compounds, and physicochemical parameters. Floral honey naturally presents low pH (3.2 – 4.5), maximum free acidity (FA) 50 mEq kg-1 and electrical conductivity (EC) 0.8 mS cm-1. Canudo-de-pito honey (CPH), a prizewinning product produced with Escallonia sp. nectar, in the southern plateau region biome, São Joaquim, SC, Brazil, has been characterized by its high pH and high EC. Thus, verifying its identity and quality parameters is a way to confirm the authenticity of the product, alongside with the appropriate legislation. To attempt a CPH authentication, it is important to acknowledge there are key factors such as the source foraging of the bees and restricted nectar seasonality altering the chemical and bioactive attributes of the specification.

Material e Métodos

The main goal of this study was to evaluate if the parameters pH, FA, and EC would characterize blossom CPH, as well as comparing the harvests regarding these criteria. For this, three different years of sample gathering were evaluated, considering the 2022 harvest happened before Escallonia sp. flowering and the reaping of 2023 and 2024 as actual harvests. Therefore, a principal component analysis (PCA) took place to verify any correlation between them.

Resultados e Discussão

The first two components explained 99.83% of the total variance. While pH and EC were positively correlated with PC1, indicating that the higher the pH content, the higher the EC value in CPH collected from both seasons (2023/2024); FA was negatively associated, indicating that honey collected before Escallonia sp. flowering has a higher FA content. To summarize, the analyses ranged from pH 4.03 ± 0.02 to 6.70 ± 0.08, FA 3.58 ± 0.30 to 33.25 ± 1.22, and EC 0.73 ± 0.01 to 1.13 ± 0.008. In addition, the results from both harvest seasons (2023-2024) showed similar patterns compared to the samples from before the flowering of Escallonia sp. (2022).

Conclusão

In conclusion, it was possible to characterize CPH, as two years harvests showed similar patterns with high pH and high EC, indicating that this honey possesses intrinsic characteristic that discriminate it from other floral honeys.