CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO HPLC FOR DETERMINATIONOF HONEY FLAVONOIDS

The general objective is to provide an alternative methodology based o n capillary electrophoresis (CE) to characterize flavonoids from honey and hence determine its botanical origin. The specific objective is t o compare the separation of flavonoids by CE with those achieved by HP LC to assess CE as an alternative technique for the determination of h oney flavonoids. Fourteen different flavonoids isolated from honey wer e analysed by MECC and compared to the HPLC separations. It was diffic ult to find specific experimental conditions to separate all the flavo noids from honey in a single MEKC run. Three chromatographic condition s are optimized and, depending on the flavonoid markers sought in hone y, the appropriate detection method should be chosen. Compared to the HPLC results, it is clear that CE could be an alternative technique in honey flavonoids analysis and particularly in the study of its geogra phical and floral origin.