Identification of the floral source of New Zealand honeys

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dc.contributor.advisorManley-Harris, Merilynen_NZ
dc.contributor.authorPetchell, Laura Eleanor
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-01T04:21:44Z
dc.date.available2017-02-21T02:29:48Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.description.abstractDepending on the nectar source, honey is either unifloral (derived mostly from one plant type), or polyfloral (derived from multiple plant types). Unifloral honey has characteristic sensory properties, and is therefore of greater commercial value. Currently, identification of floral source involves pollen counting, a specialised and labour intensive process. The current research was aimed at developing an alternative, rapid, chemistry-based method of floral identification. The aroma of honey depends on volatile compounds present; these may be derived from the plant from which nectar was taken. Therefore by identifying volatiles in honey it could be possible to identify floral source. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a technique that is useful for the headspace analysis of volatile compounds; when coupled with GC-MS it provides a powerful tool for fingerprinting volatiles in honey. GC-MS chromatograms of ten New Zealand unifloral honey types were obtained after headspace SPME extraction. Statistical analysis of the GC-MS chromatographic data was used to discriminate between floral types. Probability plots were used to identify compounds indicative of floral source; this method discriminated between honey types with 90% success. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were used to study the structure of the data. Learning algorithms in Weka (machine-learning software) were used to build models of data to classify honey types. The logistic model tree algorithm classified 89.8% of samples correctly. Such a model has the potential to be used to classify future honey samples, once further samples have been tested to validate the model.en_NZ
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationPetchell, L. E. (2009). Identification of the floral source of New Zealand honeys (Thesis, Master of Science (MSc)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/8755en
dc.identifier.issnhttp://adt.waikato.ac.nz/uploads/adt-uow20090128.092927
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10289/8755
dc.languageenen_NZ
dc.publisherThe University of Waikatoen_NZ
dc.rightshttp://www.waikato.ac.nz/copyright.shtmlen_NZ
dc.subjectHoneyen_NZ
dc.subjectSolid-Phase Microextractionen_NZ
dc.subjectSPMEen_NZ
dc.subjectchemometricsen_NZ
dc.titleIdentification of the floral source of New Zealand honeysen_NZ
dc.typeThesisen_NZ
pubs.place-of-publicationHamilton, New Zealanden_NZ
thesis.degree.disciplineScience and Engineeringen_NZ
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Waikatoen_NZ
thesis.degree.levelMastersen_NZ
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Science (MSc)en_NZ
uow.date.accession2009-01-28en_NZ
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