CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background and problem statement

Honey is a natural product that produced by honey bee from the nectar of
plants or the secretion that found on them. Honey has been used over the past
2500 years ago by many cultures from all over around the world. Honey is
well known as one of the best prebiotic food supply. Honey composition is
varies depending on numerous factor which is floral type, climate, processing
and storage conditions (Sun, 2008).
Every honey has its own aroma and taste. Honey aroma can be characterized
by its volatile compound that found in it. The flavours in honeys have been
identified by experienced noses and tasters as being floral, aromatic-herbal,
fresh, citric, fresh-fruit, ripe-fruit, caramel, woody or hay-like (Panseri,
Manzo, Chiesa, & Giorgi, 2013). The major volatile compounds found in
honey

are

nonanal,

furfunal,

decanal,

benzaldehyde,

Linalool,

phenylacetaldehyde, nonanol, 3-phenyl furan, phenylethyl alcohol and

nonanoic acid. Honey volatile frequently occur at a very low concentration
and has poor chemical stability (Panseri et al., 2013). Due to these properties,
a proper method of extraction for volatile analysis is considered. Many author
had stated that the employment of headspace solid-phase microextraction
(HS-SPME) and gas chromatography/ mass-spectrometry (GC/MS) is a very
1

sensible and solvent-free method for the extraction and analyses of the
chemical volatile (Panseri et al., 2013).
Recently, there is high market demand on pure honey. This has resulted in
increased sales of adulterated honey claimed as pure honey by irresponsible
persons (Subari, Mohamad Saleh, Md Shakaff, & Zakaria, 2012). As a
naturally produced compound that usually in short supply and relatively
expensive, honey quality assurance has become real deal. According to Cotte
et al, honey fraud may include the addition of sugar syrups or it is sold using
fake name (Sun, 2008). Many manufacturers have started to put variants of
sugar in pure honey so that it has become insignificant to distinguish between
pure honey samples and adulterated ones. Qualitative and quantitative
analysis of volatile organic compound in honey by gas chromatography
coupled with mass spectroscopy is commonly used to detect the adulteration
and authenticity of the honey.
Organoleptic properties of honey, such as flavour, colour, aroma, and texture
are closely related to the volatile organic compound. The identification of the
volatile compound can be factors estimation of honey quality. According to
Wolski (2006), the composition of volatile in honey changes over time
depending on the packaging, storage and temperature condition. He also
found the present of ethanol as one of the volatile compound is probably a
product of fermentation process. Other than that,

In the matter of adulteration or authentication of honey, the volatile

compound plays important rules. The amount of volatile compound in pure
honey and impure or adulterated honey is different significantly. Pure and
fresh honey usually contain more volatile compound. If the honey is diluted
2

with water or sugar syrups, the amount of volatile compound is expected to

reduce. Last but not least, this study also can help identify the floral and
geographical origin of the honey.

1.2 Significance of study

The significant of conducting this study is to help determine the quality of the
honey and provide information on the adulteration and the authenticity of the
honey.

1.3 Objectives of study

The objective of this study is to identify the volatile organic compound
present in different brands of honey.

References
Panseri, S., Manzo, A., Chiesa, L. M., & Giorgi, A. (2013).
Melissopalynological and Volatile Compounds Analysis
of

Buckwheat

Honey

from

Different

Geographical

Origins and Their Role in Botanical Determination.

Journal

of

Chemistry,

2013,

1-11.

doi:

10.1155/2013/904202
Subari, N., Mohamad Saleh, J., Md Shakaff, A. Y., & Zakaria, A.
(2012). A

hybrid sensing approach for pure and adulterated

honey classification. Sensors (Basel), 12(10), 1402214040. doi: 10.3390/s121014022
Sun, D. (2008). Modern techniques for food authentication.
Amsterdam:
Elsevier/Academic Press.