The use of carbohydrate profiles and chemometrics in the characterization of natural honeys of identical geographical origin

A study of the real possibilities of carbohydrate profiles and chemometrics to characterize the botanical origin of honey from a single geographical area, the Province of Soria (Spain), is presented. To this end, 14 carbohydrates were quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) in 77 natural honeys, the botanical origins of which were ling, spike lavender, French lavender, thyme, forest, and multifloral. Principal component analysis has been employed as a first approach to characterize the honey samples analyzed, showing similarities between spike lavender and multifloral honeys. The best discrimination among groups is obtained when four canonical discriminant analyses were carried out sequentially, origin by origin, achieving an overall percentage of success of 90% following cross-validation.