Royal Jelly Quality Check

Royal jell is a white part of the bee nest, this substance also have benefit to human health, many method to analyze the quality of this product, one of the honey quality check method use analytical methods. Analytical methods for residues of tetracyclines and acaricides in royal jelly.

After the ban on importations of royal jelly (RJ) from China and the recent increase in the production of European countries, this bee product has gained increasing interest. One of the main concerns for the quality of RJ is the presence of residues of chemicals used in beekeeping, but very few studies are found in literature on the analysis of this particular matrix.

Two analytical methods are proposed for the determination of acaricide and tetracycline residues in RJ. For the determination of acaricides, two sample preparation methods were established: the first one requires an alkaline dissolution of the sample, an extraction on a copolymeric sorbent and the subsequent elution with organic solvents; the other one requires mixing the sample with diatomaceous earth, a solid-liquid extraction with acetone:hexane and a florisil SPE purification. The second method is somewhat slower but preserves the analytes from alkaline breakdown. Both the sample preparation methods employ a GC/ECD determination. The method was tested for Brompropylate, Coumaphos, Fluvalinate and Flumethrine.

The method for tetracyclines requires an alkaline dissolution of the RJ sample and the solid phase extraction of the analytes on a hydrophilic-lipophilic copolymer, followed by an elution in acid solution. The eluate is then injected in an HPLC-DAD system with detection at 353 nm. The method was tested for Oxytetracycline, Tetracycline and Chlortetracycline. Demeclocycline can be used as internal standard.

Temperature Effect to Honey Quality

Honey quality can change of temperature effect, this is because of honey contains itself can broken to high temperature, also vitamin contain can damage by high temperature effect. This is why; honey should be placed in certain condition, safe, cold environment and using glass bottle. The description of honey contain as follows.

Honey is a mixture of many substances. Apart from the carbohydrates which make up the basic components, numerous other substances are included. Among the volatile compounds which are related to honey’s flavor, most are compounds deriving from the original honey source (nectar, honeydew) and some of them arise during processing or storage.

In this work, the effect of heat on the profile of volatiles of pine honey was studied. Pine honey samples were heated to 45 °C, 55 °C, 65 °C, and 75 °C and for 1, 6, 24 and 48 hours. All samples were analyzed using a Purge & Trap - GC – MS system.

The results indicated that nine volatile compounds changed. All these substances were furan derivatives. It was found that the above changes were significant for temperatures higher than 45 °C. Also, the changes were depended on duration of heating. Furfural was the compound that had increased more than other substances. Moreover, the increasing rates of HMF and furfural concentrations were studied. It was concluded that furfural was more sensitive to heating than HMF. So as totally the honey quality will change or degrade and will lessen the function of honey to human body.

Greek Honey

Honey is generally considered as a high-quality natural product. All sorts of factors in the environment of the bees, however, affect honey quality. This means that honey may contain residues of pesticides as well as toxic plant-produced substances. Bees accumulate honey source from pollen, this pollen affected to honey quality.

As a natural, pollen can make human asthma or allergy, but through a bee organ this pollen can change become a quality goods that is need by human as supplement or even for medicine. Pollen analysis of honey can be used to determine the botanical origin of the honey. Bees have the expertise for conducting such studies.

Compared to honey produced in other countries like from Australian or China, Greek honey is internationally known to be a special honey, with distinct biological and organoleptic characteristics.

Its supreme quality reflects the country's long sunshine periods and the abrupt changes in the landscape. This special landscape makes Greek flora so rich, that from the 7500 different species of plants growing in Greece, 850 of them are found exclusively here.

That is the reason why certain varieties of honey do not exist anywhere else in the world. There are varieties that come from coniferous trees and others that come from flowers and aromatic plants.

The best honey in Greece comes from thyme, by far the best honey in the world. Of exceptional quality is the honey coming from flowers, thyme and herbs, flowers and forest originated honey such as sylvan honey, pine tree honey and conifer trees honey. The country's honey is known since ancient times and it is part of Greek nutrition used to maintain a healthy human organism. Today Greek producers have managed to lower production costs and offer best quality honey in smart packaging and at competitive prices. After they can modification about the technology and systems.