Relationship between interannual variation of amino acid profile and pollen content in honey from a small Argentinian region.

COMETTO, P.M.; FAYE, P.F.; CACCAVARI, M.; BARONI, M.V.; ALDAO, M.A.J.

JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY

American Chemical Society Publications

Lugar: Davis, California,USA; Año: 2006 vol. 54 p. 9458 - 9464

0021-8561

With the objective of evaluating the utility of the amino acid profile in the characterization of honey samples, 39 honey samples of two different harvests from a particular production zone in Córdoba, Argentina were analyzed. Multivariate statistical techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) were applied in order to verify the correlation among the amino acid profiles, pollen percentages, and the different harvests. PCA, CA and MCA demonstrate the presence of differences of amino acids profiles between samples of the two harvests, such differences being mainly due to differences in pollen availability. Variation of the flora surrounding the apiary due to agricultural practices, make the analysis of amino acid profile typical for those cases with stabilized flora.