Botanical Origin Authentication of Polish Phacelia Honey Using the Combination of Volatile Fraction Profiling by HS-SPME and Lipophilic Fraction Profiling by HPTLC

Eleven samples of Polish Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth., three Brassica napus and one Salix spp. honeys were characterized by melissopalynology and analysis of the compositions of their volatile fractions. Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC–MS) using PDMS/CAR/DVB fiber was used for the isolation of low-molecular weight compounds which create a volatile fraction. To differentiate and indicate the most representative unifloral samples, chemometric techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical-tree clustering (HTC) were applied to the dataset of the chromatographic fingerprints. Based on the obtained results, a unique chemical fingerprint of phacelia honey was generated. This study allows us to discriminate the botanical origin of the phacelia honeys based on the GC–MS and HPTLC analysis. In case of the GC–MS analysis trans-linalool oxide, hotrienol, cis-linalool oxide and cis-epoxylinalool were identified as a predominant compound. Additionally lipophilic fractions obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) were subjected to the HPTLC analysis. It allowed the construction of a barcode-type identifier that could be used to differentiate the honey samples even without identifying the individual components of the obtained fraction.