Infrared Spectroscopy as a Valuable Tool for the Analysis of Honey Bee Plant-Derived Products

Abstract

The importance of honey has been recently promoted due to its nutritional,
pharmaceutical and therapeutical characteristics. In recent years, the combination of
novel and rapid instrumental techniques based on infrared spectroscopy [mid infrared
(MIR), near infrared (NIR)] combined with multivariate data analysis has resulted in
the development of both qualitative and quantitative methods for the analysis of honey
and bee products. The most important applications of these technologies in honey have
been associated with authenticity, discrimination or traceability issues. However, few
reports can be found on the use of both NIR and MIR to quantitatively analyse honey
composition and less information is available for the analysis of other bee products.
This chapter aims to describe and discuss different applications on the use of NIR and
MIR spectroscopies to analyse honey, pollen and bee derived products. A brief
description of some qualitative applications will be also discussed.

Keywords: Adulteration, Artificial neural networks, Authenticity, Chemometrics, Composition, Fourier, Glucose, Honey, Infrared, Mid infrared, Multivariate data, Near infrared, PLS, Pollen, Principal component, Propolis.