Geographical differentiation of Cypriot multifloral honeys through specific volatile compounds and the use of DFA

The objective of the present work was to investigate the volatile profile of multifloral honeys collected from different regions in Cyprus, and whether these specific volatiles could serve as true markers of geographical origin. An effort to highlight differences in the volatile amounts of Cypriot honeys according to altitude of harvesting was also carried out. Aqueous solutions of honeys were subjected to headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis (HS-SPME/GC-MS). Results showed that 25 volatile compounds of different classes were identified in all samples by 100% frequency rate. Application of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that 3 volatiles [1-(2-furanyl-ethanone), cis-linalool oxide, para-cymenene] recorded significant variations ( p 0.05 ) according to geographical origin. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) classified honeys according to geographical origin providing a total classification rate of 85% using the original and 70% the cross validation method based on the aforementioned volatiles. It is possible then for an analyst to characterize the geographical origin of honey, even in cases when multifloral honeys are subjected to research/analysis. Regarding the effect of altitude on Cypriot honey aroma, results showed that the lower the altitude of harvesting the richer the aroma of honeys.