FLAVONOID PATTERNS OF FRENCH HONEYS WITH DIFFERENT FLORAL ORIGIN

The flavonoid profiles of 12 different unifloral French honey samples were analysed by HPLC to evaluate if these substances could be used as markers of the floral origin of honey. In this analysis, the characte ristic flavonoids from propolis and/or beeswax (chrysin, galangin, tec tochrysin, pinocembrin and pinobanksin) were separated from those orig inating mainly from nectar and/or pollen (polyhydroxylated flavonoid a glycones), which would be related to their floral origin. All the anal ysed samples contained a common flavoniod profile consisting of polyhy droxylated flavonoid agylcones including 8-methoxykaempferol, kaempfer ol, quercetin, isorthamnetin luteolin and apigenin, suggesting that fl avonoid analysis does not generally prove differences between French m onofloral honey samples. However, some individual honey samples showed potential floral markers. Thus, heather honey was characterized by th e presence of myricetin, calluna honey by ellagic acid and citrus hone y by the flavanone hesperetin. In other samples, the relative amount o f 1 individual flavonoid could be related to the floral origin. Thus, sunflower honeys contained an important relative amount of quercetin, and in alder honey only 8-methoxylkaempferol was detected. This prelim inary study shows that flavonoid and phenolic compound analyses could be a very valuable complementary biochemical technique in the objectiv e determination of the floral origin of some specific monofloral honey samples, but further studies with a larger number of samples is neces sary to confirm the observed differences.