Indicators of bioactivity and floral origin of New Zealand honeys
type: CreativeWork
description: The hypothesis that NIR might be capable of discriminating one floral source from another was explored. No prior analysis of NIR for New Zealand honeys has been reported. A visual inspection of the NIR spectra of ten New Zealand honey types indicates that beech honeydew honey is significantly different from nectar honeys. Rata honey is the most unique nectar honey with very little variability seen in the NIR spectra compared to other honey types. Both beech honeydew and rata honey can be distinguished from other floral types using Linear Discriminant analysis (LDA) on selected wavelengths. A degree of clustering within other honey types is achieved, however none of these are fully resolved. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) model successfully classified all main New Zealand unifloral honeys with an average correct classification of 93%. 100% of all beech honeydew honeys were correctly classified with close to 100% achieved for rata, kamahi, manuka, rewarewa and clover honeys. Honeys with a clover contribution: tawari, thyme, nodding thistle and vipers‟ bugloss displayed reduced performance in this model with a proportion of samples misclassified as clover honey. These results indicate that the NIR spectra evaluated using a PLS model would be an effective industry classification method for the identification of New Zealand unifloral honeys with the exception of nodding thistle and vipers‟ bugloss honeys. A multi-technique classification model incorporating NIR classification results with conductivity, colour and sugar analysis has been proposed. A series of compounds in manuka honey were examined in respect to UMF activity. The carbohydrate profiles of 38 manuka honeys of varying UMF activity were determined using a combination of HPLC, GC-FID and GC-MS. A method was developed to determine the proportion of nigerose, turanose, maltose and maltulose in reduced and silylated honey using the ratio of m/z 307 to m/z 308 ion responses as determined by GC-MS-SIM. An examinatio…
abstract: The hypothesis that NIR might be capable of discriminating one floral source from another was explored. No prior analysis of NIR for New Zealand honeys has been reported. A visual inspection of the NIR spectra of ten New Zealand honey types indicates that beech honeydew honey is significantly different from nectar honeys. Rata honey is the most unique nectar honey with very little variability seen in the NIR spectra compared to other honey types. Both beech honeydew and rata honey can be distinguished from other floral types using Linear Discriminant analysis (LDA) on selected wavelengths. A degree of clustering within other honey types is achieved, however none of these are fully resolved. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) model successfully classified all main New Zealand unifloral honeys with an average correct classification of 93%. 100% of all beech honeydew honeys were correctly classified with close to 100% achieved for rata, kamahi, manuka, rewarewa and clover honeys. Honeys with a clover contribution: tawari, thyme, nodding thistle and vipers‟ bugloss displayed reduced performance in this model with a proportion of samples misclassified as clover honey. These results indicate that the NIR spectra evaluated using a PLS model would be an effective industry classification method for the identification of New Zealand unifloral honeys with the exception of nodding thistle and vipers‟ bugloss honeys. A multi-technique classification model incorporating NIR classification results with conductivity, colour and sugar analysis has been proposed. A series of compounds in manuka honey were examined in respect to UMF activity. The carbohydrate profiles of 38 manuka honeys of varying UMF activity were determined using a combination of HPLC, GC-FID and GC-MS. A method was developed to determine the proportion of nigerose, turanose, maltose and maltulose in reduced and silylated honey using the ratio of m/z 307 to m/z 308 ion responses as determined by GC-MS-SIM. An examinatio…
author: Goss, Carol Heather Ann
keywords: honey, manuka, UMF, unifloral, NIR, disaccharides
date published: 2009
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:52Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato