Determination of eucalyptol camphor menthol and thymol in Greek thyme honey by GC-FID

Tsigouri, A. and Passaloglou-Katrali, M. and Sabatakou, O. (2008) Determination of eucalyptol camphor menthol and thymol in Greek thyme honey by GC-FID. Acta Alimentaria, 37 (2). pp. 181-189. ISSN 0139-3006

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Abstract

Characterisation of unifloral honeys is a hard task that involves evaluation of the results of melissopalynological, physicochemical and sensory analyses. Finding reliable chemical markers to ascertain botanical origin of honey is of great importance to the beekeeping industry. The purpose of this work was to analyse untreated Greek thyme honeys and evaluate the possibility of establishing chemical markers for this honey by using a simple and reliable analytical method. The analytical method employed consists of extraction on octadecylsilica cartridges, GC separation and FID detection. The limits of detection were 30, 20, 15 and 15 μg kg−1 for eucalyptol, camphor, menthol and thymol, respectively, while the limit of quantification for each substance was 50 μg kg−1. Overall recoveries were >85%. The results showed that none of the 47 thyme honey samples analysed contained eucalyptol or camphor. All samples contained menthol and thymol, but the concentrations were very low ranging from traces to 51.3 μg kg−1 and 65 μg kg−1, respectively.

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