Caracterização de méis da flora nativa e exótica de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Brazil, due to climatic conditions and flora diversity, has the potential to produce honeys of different flowers. Although wild honey is the best known and consumed, the characterization of other types of honeys, often little known and investigated, is of fundamental importance to encourage production and contribute to greater insertion in the consumer market. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate different single-flowe (assa-peixe, coffee, eucalyptus, laranjeira and vassourinha), polyphloral (silvestre), extrafloral (sugarcane) and honeydew (bracatinga) from the state of Minas Gerais. Therefore, in the first step, the honeys were characterized in relation to their physicochemical properties, rheological behavior, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity and sensory characteristics. The second step of the study aimed to evaluate the effect of storage (14 °C/180 days) on physical, physicochemical, rheological characteristics and crystallization tendency through microscopic analysis. In the first part of the work, the physicochemical data of all honeys fell within the limits defined by the legislation. Assa-peixe, laranjeira and café honeys showed higher viscosity, sugarcane honey stood out for being among the honeys with the highest antioxidant activity, while bracatinga honey stood out in relation to phenolic compounds. As for the sensorial analysis, there was no significant difference between floral honeys, which showed greater acceptability than the others. In the second part of the work, it can be seen that in general, all honeys showed changes during storage. Sugar cane honey stood out for having greater crystallization, a process influenced by the high content of glucose and fructose, and coffee honey was the most stable among the honeys analyzed, with less crystallization. The composition of the honeys directly influenced the crystallization process during storage, changing characteristics such as water activity, viscosity, color and absorbance of the honeys.