Phenolic compounds and color of labeled resin spurge honey and their correlations with pollen content

Our aim in this study was to outline phenolic and color characteristic that characterize the labeled unifloral resin spurge (Euphorbia resinifera) honey. With respect to phenolic composition, 17 phenolic compounds have been analyzed in the 29 honey samples. The proposed markers (syringic acid, ethyl gallate, m-coumaric acid and naringenin) might help to the enhancement of this honey type and thus, guarantee its commercial value. The color characterization by diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry revealed typical values of light amber honey (lightness ranged from 36 to 70 units, and chroma from 18 to 30 units). On the other hand, many correlations between the color attributes and phenolic acids, total phenolic compounds, caffeic acid, p- and m-coumaric acids and hesperidin have been demonstrated, also, correlation between phenols, color parameters and percentage of pollen of E. resinifera has been found. This study is one of the rare researches which have correlated the CIELAB color parameters with the individual phenolic acids and flavonoid compounds within the same unifloral honey.