Determinazione dell'origine botanica del miele: un nuovo ed affidabile metodo di risonanza magnetica nucleare e chemiometrica

In this thesis, a new NMR study, coupled with chemometric analysis, on non-volatile organic honey components has been presented. The 1 H NMR spectra of chloroform extracts acquired with a fast and new pulse sequence were used to characterize and differentiate by chemometric analysis 172 honey samples of six different botanical origins (chestnut, acacia, linden, eucalyptus, orange and polyfloral). The spectra collection, processing and analysis require only thirty minutes. The 1 H spectrum provides a fingerprint for each honey type showing many characteristic peaks in all spectral regions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) were performed on selected signals of the spectra to discriminate the different botanical types and to identify characteristic metabolites for each honey type. The discriminant analysis allowed us to classify correctly 100% of the samples. In this work the -lactam derivative of 3-pyrrolidinyl kynurenic acid and 4-quinolone were identified as chestnut honey’s markers and the dehydovomifoliol was identified as eucalyptus honey’s markers.