Physicochemical Properties, Phenolic Contents and Antioxidant Activity of Vietnamese Honey

Abstract

Vietnam is located in the tropical monsoon climate area (Southeast Asia), along with the biodiversity of plant species, which has created many types of monofloral and polyfloral honey. However, there has not been a study that fully reports on the physicochemical composition, antioxidant activity and content of phytochemical compounds of honey in this country. Therefore, this study aimed to determine Vietnam's physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, and phytochemical content of longan flower honey and natural polyfloral honey (from Micrapis honeycomb). The reference analytical methods were modified based on previous honey studies. Following proximate indicators were found: The moisture content varied from 21.9 to 30.5%, the ash content varied from 0.37 to 0.48%, the protein content varied from 0.25 to 0.41%, and the 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furaldehyde (HMF) varied from 33.4 to 75.4%. The total phenolic and flavonoid concentrations ranged from 0.890 to 1.110 mgGAE/g and 0.049 to 0.089 mgQE/g. Besides, the antioxidant activity of longan flower honey was recorded as the best, with the IC50 value of 68.49 mg/mL. In addition, Water content, free acidity, sugar content (glucose, fructose, and sucrose), and HMF concentration were all tested and presented.

Keywords

• longan honey
• phenolic compounds
• physicochemistry
• polyfloral honey
• vietnamese honey