Usefulness of Flavonoids and Phenolic Acids in Differentiating Honeys Based on Geographical Origin: The Case of Dominican Republic and Spanish Honeys

As a novel approach, polyfloral honey originating from the three regions of the Caribbean Island of the Dominican Republic (D.R.) was analyzed. Using the HPLC-DAD technique, 10 specific flavonoids (FLV) together with 9 phenolic acids (PHA) were identified and compared with Spanish polyflorals (commercial brands, artisanal beekeepers, and experimental apiaries). On average, the total content of FLV and PHA was much higher in Spanish (14.2 and 20.1 mg/kg) than in D.R. (10.8 and 4.5 mg/kg) honeys. Unlike in Dominican honeys, chrysin (in FLV) and vanillic acid (in PHA) had the greatest impact on Spanish honey, with the latter alone accounting for more than 50% of the quantified PHAs. Unsupervised Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the information provided by both FLV and PHA allowed us to differentiate honeys according to their geographical origin, particularly at the country level. Furthermore, a stepwise discriminant-analysis identified the PHA ferulic acid followed by the FLVs apigenin-7-glucoside, chrysin, and naringenin as the most influential compounds for distinguishing among groups of honeys. The resulting model correctly classified 80.3% of the original and 71.2% of the cross-validated cases, indicating acceptable efficiency and robustness. These findings highlight the potential of the analyzed compounds for the geographical authentication of honey, providing the beekeeping sector with valuable tools for ensuring honey provenance.