Spectrophotometric Determination of the Honey Bee Quality

Abstract

Honey produced by bees from nectar in flowers and plants, is an aqueous supersaturated sugar solution, mainly monosaccharide (fructose and glucose) (70%–80%) and water (10%–20%). 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) content in honey bee is an indicator of the purity. High concentration of 5-HMF in honey bee indicates overheating and poor storage conditions (The chemical properties of honey, free acids and total acids) significantly in correlation with the HMF content and provides parameters that are used to make quick assessments of honey quality (Khalil et al., 2010). The recommended value of 5-HMF (Alinorm 01/25, 2000) and the European Union (Directive 110/2001) in honey usually should not exceed 80 or 40 mg/kg, respectively. This work aims to examine the concentration of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) content in different Qatari honey bee samples as an indicator of the honey bee quality by using the reference White Method.