Comparative studies on ripened and unripened honey of unifloral Brassica juncea.

摘要

In the present study, various physicochemical parameters of ripened and unripened honey samples were determined and compared. Ripened and unripened honey samples of unifloral Brassica juncea were collected from leading beekeepers of Sangrur district of Punjab State, India. Six samples of each ripened and unripened honey were collected on weekly interval during January to February 2004. The samples were stored at room temperature in air tight glass container prior to analysis. It was observed that moisture content in the unripened honey (19.8%) was more than ripened honey (18.4%). The sucrose level in unripened (8.4%) was more than ripened honey (8.0%). Fructose, glucose, reducing sugars and total reducing sugars in ripened honey were 39.7, 33.2, 60.8 and 69.3% and in unripened honey, 39.6, 30.4, 58.8 and 67.7%, respectively. Unripened honey has a low level of pH (4.2) as compared to ripened honey (5.0). Free acidity, lactonic acidity and total acidity for ripened honey were found to be 23.0, 3.0 and 26.1, respectively. For ripened honey, these values were 26.6, 5.1 and 31.7, respectively. The data revealed that all physicochemical parameters in the ripened honey were significantly different from the unripened honey at 1% level except refractive index which was significantly different at 5% level, indicating their suitability and significance as a tool for predicting authenticity..