Summary
Honey is one of the most popular natural foods and the consumption has grown in the last few decades. Hydrophilicinteraction chromatography was used for the separation of mono- and disaccharides to distinguish between honey and honey substitute products. The dedicated AZURA® Sugar Analytical System with autosampler upgrade is perfectly suitable for this application.
Introduction
There are well over 50 different kinds of honey on the market, which differ in consistency, color, and taste. In Germany, the honey ordinance differentiates honey according to the origin, type of extraction, the form of supply or the intended use. Natural bee honey consists of approx. 39 % fructose and approx. 34 % glucose. [1] For example, blossom honey (Blütenhonig) must contain at least 60 % fructose and glucose [2]. In addition, small amounts of sucrose or maltose can be detected [1]. Internationally, products containing more than 5 % sucrose or maltose must no longer be labeled as "pure" honey [3]. The Association of Official Analytical Chemist (AOAC) designed a method for the analysis of sucrose, fructose, and glucose in honey (AOAC 977.20). Based on this method, we used an Eurospher II NH2 column for hydrophilic-interaction chromatography (HILIC). Two different commercially available honeys and two substitutes were analyzed to illustrate the differences between these products.
Figure 1 Overlay of 12 replicates of the 12.5 mg/mL sugar standard containing 1) fructose, 2) glucose, 3) sucrose, 4) maltose.>> Download the full Application Note as PDF
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