Bee's Honeys With High Concentration of Dicarbonyl Molecules Are Rich in Vitamin C and Deficient in Hydrogen Peroxide
Abstract The altitude is well known to affect the temperature, parometric and oxygen pressure and the amount of UV radiation which affect the bees and the physicochemical properties of bee's honey. This study investigated the relations between the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, vitamin C and dicarbonyl molecules in honey samples from different floral origins and altitudes. Ten Ziziphus and twenty Acacia honey samples were collected directly from their bee farms. The hydrogen peroxide and vitamin C were measured using redox titartions while the dicarbonyl molecules concnetration was determined spectrophotometerically. The results were statisticaly analyzed by the ANOVA and t-test of the SPSS. The mean concentration of vitamin C in the Acacia and Ziziphus honey samples were 275.14± 82.3 and 239.16± 91.5 mg/100g, respectively. The mean hydrogen peroxide percentages in the Acacia and Ziziphus honey samples were 2.66± 0.81 and 4.94± 1.85%, respectively. The mean concentrations of the dicarbonyl molecules in the Acacia and Ziziphus were 324.62± 291.03 and 115.75± 94.9 mg/Kg, respectively. Significant variations were reported in the case of the hydrogen peroxide and the dicarbonyl molecules concentrations in the Acacia and Ziziphus honeys (p- values = 0.004 and 0.007, respectively). The altitude significantly afected the studied parameters. Honeys rich in dicarbonyl molecules have a high concentration of vitamin C and low content of hydrogen peroxide.