FLAVONOIDS FROM PORTUGUESE HEATHER HONEY

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 1994

Authors

Federico Ferreres (Author) Other; Paula Andrade (Author) FFUP; Francisco A Tomï¿¿s-Barberï¿¿n (Author) Other

Journal

Title: European Food Research and Technology

Vol. 199

Pages: 32-37

ISSN: 1438-2377

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 56 Citations

Scopus - 73 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-005-6DA

DOI: 10.1007/bf01192949

Abstract (EN): The flavonoids present in twenty samples of Portuguese heather honey were analysed by reversed-phase HPLC. The flavonoid fraction was purified by a combination of chromatography on Amberlite XAD-2 and Sephadex LH-20 columns. The total amount of flavonoids ranged between 60 and 500 mug/100 g honey, values which are much smaller than those previously found for Spanish rosemary honey samples (500-2000 mug/100 g honey). The main flavonoids present in Portuguese heather honey were the flavanones pinocembrin and pinobanksin and the flavones chrysin and galangin. These analyses showed that all the samples contained a similar flavonoid pattern composed of at least 22 compounds. The most characteristic substances were myricetin, myricetin 3-methyl ether, myricetin 3'-methyl ether and tricetin. These four flavonoids have in common the structural feature of having a trioxygenated ring B (3',4',5'-trioxygenation), this being an attribute not found in the flavonoids detected in any other honey sample of different plant origin analysed so far, suggesting that these substances could probably be used as markers for the botanical origin of heather honey.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6