Unifloral honeys of Satureja montana L. and Savila officinalis L. are one of the major honey harvests in Dalmatian region of Croatia with remedy properties (especially antiseptic). The aim of this work is to determine, for the first time, their headspace “fingerprint“ due to the general lack of their physicochemical data for unifloral origin determination. Screening of unifloral honey origin was based on pollen analysis (pollen percentage at least 20%). A simple solvent-free technique, solid phase microextraction (SPME), has recently been developed for isolation of honey headspace volatiles [1]. Different types of SPME fibres have been evaluated and we found better results with PDMS/DVB fibre. The main headspace volatiles of Salvia honey were: phenylacetaldehyde, α-isophorone, 4-ketoisophorone, p-anisaldehyde, hotrienol followed by minor quantity of 2-phenylethanol, cis- and trans-linalool oxides and others. Salvia honey headspace volatiles was shown to be distinct by high content of norisoprenoides (3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-ene derivatives) with attractive sensory properties and low odour thresholds [2]: 3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-en-1-one (α-isophorone) and 3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-ene-1,4-dione (4-ketoisophorone). The main headspace volatiles of Satureja honey were: ethyl benzoate, hotrienol, cis- and trans-linalool oxides followed by minor quantity of acetoin, 2-phenylethanol, phenylacetaldehyde, β-phenylacetate, linalool and others. Hotrienol is probably formed during ripening [3]. Phenylacetaldehyde, 2-phenylethanol and benzaldehyde are ubiquitous in many types of honeys [4].
Acknowledgements: Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia (grant 011–0982929–1329).
References: [1] Cuevas-Glory L. F. et al. (in press) Food Chem. [2] Bianchi, F. et al. (2005) Food Chem. 89: 527–532. [3] Alissandrakis, E. et al. (2007) 100: 396–404. [4] Piasenzotto, L. et al. (2003) 83: 1037–1044.
