VENEZUELAN STINGLESS BEE HONEYS CHARACTERIZED BY MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES

Stingless bee honey samples collected from 27 nests in Venezuela, were analysed for ten compositional factors (acidity, ash, electrical cond uctivity, diastase activity, hydroxymethylfurfural invertase activity, nitrogen, reducing sugars, sucrose and water). The entomological orig in of the honeys based on these factors was explored using three metho ds of multivariate analysis. Clustering was adequate to separate the h oney samples into two stingless bee tribes with the exception of honey s from one genus of Trigonini. Principal component analysis confirmed these findings and grouped the honeys to species level. Although discr iminant analysis of the ten quality factors under consideration positi oned all the samples in their respective entomological group, lowering the number of variables to reducing sugars, sucrose and diastase acti vity was still satisfactory for a correct classification. A fourth var iable that could be used to assign correct membership was either acidi ty or nitrogen content. (C) Inra/DIB/AGIB/Elsevier, Paris.