NMR Investigations of Honey: Chemical Composition, Chemical Physical Properties and Molecular Dynamics

Honey is the best known and a widely used bee product, as well as one of the most defrauded foods. This paper focuses on the analysis of honey by different NMR techniques, complemented by some conventional methods to characterize food. Twenty-six honey samples of different botanical and geographical origins have been investigated. The chemical composition of honey samples in terms of water content and sugar concentrations was determined, and high-resolution ¹H NMR spectroscopy was used to identify, and in some cases to quantify, some of the minor chemical compounds considered important to discriminate the botanical origin of honey. Finally, we developed a model for molecular dynamics in honey, which was tested to analyse the ¹H NMR relaxation dispersions as studied by fast field-cycling NMR relaxometry. In conclusion, an array of NMR techniques, ranging from high to low resolution, was applied to a broad set of honey samples from diverse botanical and geographical origins. The outcomes provide a foundation for future research and potential applications in honey authentication and characterization.