PROFILE OF INORGANIC ELEMENTS IN HONEY SAMPLES FROM THE MARANHÃO STATE AS A BIOINDICATOR OF GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN

Honey is a substance that contains a variety of macro and micro minerals present in the range between 0.02-1.03%. The main objective of this study was to determine the concentration of elements inorganic in 15 honey samples collected in various regions of Maranhão (Northeast Brazil), using highly sensitive analytical techniques, such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), in addition to applying multivariate statistical tools, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) in the treatment of data. The method presented detection limits between 0.4 to 2.8 mg kg^-1. Fifteen samples and 19 metals were analyzed, and two of these samples had high levels of lead, exceeding the limits allowed by Brazilian legislation. Thus, it can be concluded that the presence of potentially toxic metals in honey is an indication that the production areas may be contaminated by different external sources. The chemometric analysis of the data by PCA and HCA allowed to classify honey in two main groups: honey produced in urban areas and honey produced in rural areas with PCA explaining 73% of the data variance with the sum of the first 3 components.

Keywords:
honey; chemometry; bioindicator; ICP-OES