Composition and antioxidant activity of honey from Africanized and stingless bees in Alagoas (Brazil): a multivariate analysis
Author(s)
Alysson Wagner Fernandes Duarte, Maria Raphaella dos Santos Vasconcelos, Adriana Pereira Domarques de Menezes, Silvio Chagas da Silva, Melissa Oda-souza and Ana Maria Queijeiro López
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of honey from different entomological sources which were harvested in the dry season of 2008-2009 from distinct mesoregions of the State of Alagoas in the North East of Brazil. Honey produced by five different species of bees, even from the same region and season, showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) in the content of phenols, flavonoids and antioxidants, with higher levels of these compounds found in honey produced by Plebeia spp. and A. mellifera. Honey from stingless bees was quite different from that of A. mellifera, especially from the Plebeia spp. A dendrogram of the five species of bees showed the formation of 3 groups, one being formed by Apis mellifera, one by the genus Melipona (M. subnitida, M. quadrifasciata and M. scutellaris) and another formed by Plebeia spp.
Keywords
honey, stingless bees, antioxidant, principal component analysis
