Chemometric Differentiation of Organic Honeys From Southeastern Türkiye Based on Free Amino Acid and Phenolic Profiles

Abstract

Verifying the geographical origin of honey is crucial for its market value and for preventing fraudulent practices. This study aimed to characterize the chemical profiles of organic honeys from three distinct regions in Southeastern T & uuml;rkiye-& Scedil;& imath;rnak Fara & scedil;in, Siirt Merkez, and Siirt Pervari-to establish a robust method for geographical authentication. A total of 51 multifloral honey samples were analyzed. The concentrations of 20 free amino acids (FAAs) and 16 phenolic compounds were quantified using (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The resulting data were subjected to both an unsupervised (PCA, CA) and supervised (PLS-DA, RF, SVM) chemometric analysis to identify biochemical markers for each region. The results revealed a distinct chemical fingerprint for each region. Based on the FAA profiles, the PLS-DA method provided the best overall classification, achieving an excellent discrimination with a total accuracy of 94.1% in the & Scedil;& imath;rnak Fara & scedil;in honeys. For the phenolic compound profiles, the RF method achieved the highest correct classification rate for & Scedil;& imath;rnak Fara & scedil;in honeys at 88.2%. This study demonstrates that an integrated approach, combining FAA and phenolic profiles with supervised chemometric methods, provides a successful and reliable model for determining the geographical origin of these multifloral honeys.