Quality Analysis for Some Types of Honey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Eman E. Shehata *
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Authority of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Alexandria, Egypt.
Ebtehal S. Alsubaie
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Nuha Y. ELamin
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 407, Khartoum, Sudan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Honey is a natural food is produced from the nectar of flowers by bees, contains a lot of sugars, vitamins, minerals and nucleic acids. Honey is an important nutrient for the human body and health, where modern science proved that honey natural antibiotic and tonic for the human body. This study will determine the physicochemical properties such as electrical conductivity, pH and free acidity for different types of honey on the market in Saudi Arabia. Four types of honey were selected randomly sidr, buckwheat, clover and cotton. Electrical conductivity was found to be 0.680±0.000, 0.434±0.001, 0.217±0.000 and 0.199±0.001 mS/cm for sidr, buckwheat, clover and cotton, respectively. On the other hand, the pH measurements were found to be 5.6±0.03, 4.73±0.01, 4.51±0.01 and 4.49±0.02 for sidr, buckwheat, clover and cotton, respectively. Finally, the free acidity was determined by volumetric titration and was found to be 12±0.02, 14.7±0.6, 10.7±0.6 and 8.7±1.2 meq/kg. However, the potentiometric titration method gives 9.9±0.3, 10.9±2.5, 9.9±0.4and 6.2±0.6 meq/kg for sidr, buckwheat, clover and cotton, respectively. The conductivity and acidity were compared with the limited range in the codex Alimentarius and found to be in the range.
Keywords: Honey, acidity, pH, electrical conductivity.