The chemical properties of the Maltese honey

Abstract

The actual situation of beekeeping in the Maltese islands was discussed mainly highlighting the number of beekeepers and their distribution. A brief account on the history of beekeeping in Malta and the importance of the Maltese honey for many ancient civilizations such as Greeks and Romans was also mentioned. The three parameters studied were ethanol, oxalic acid and carbohydrate properties. The properties of ethanol, fermentation and the production of mead were discussed. Glucose, fructose and sucrose are the main carbohydrates which were considered in this project. Oxalic acid and it's in relation to beekeeping was also highlighted. Experiments were carried out on colour analysis (processing of honey samples, scanning a range of wavelengths and reading the absorbance of a specific wavelength), oxalic acid determination, ethanol determination and sugar determination. The scanning of a range of wavelengths was to determine the peaks of absorbance of every sample at a range of wavelength from 200nm - 800 run. It was noted that in some samples there was a particular peak correlated with that of HMF in honey. Another UV test was done at a single wavelength in order to determine the coloure of every sample. A test for the determination of oxalic acid was made due to determine the accounts of oxalic acid in every sample. The test was done with the use of solutions made according to (R-Biopharm data sheet). The other tests for the determination of sugars and ethanol were all done according to the (R-Biopharm data sheet). It was observed that the results of range wavelengths between 200nm - 800nm showed a maximum absorbance at the wavelength of 283 nm. Samples A and F exhibited values above 1.000 which is an indication of HMF in Honey. These two samples were also high in sucrose content which correlates with the production of HMF in Honey. The test at a single wavelength showed that C and F were darker than the other samples. The colour mainly depends on the plant species that honey originated from. Also A and E where lighter than the other samples which were both wild thyme honeys.