QUALITY OF HELIANTHUS ANNUUS HONEY OBTAINED IN THE CONDITIONS OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION

Natural honey is a source of vital amino acids, easily digestible carbohydrates, macro, microelements, biologically active substances that determine nutritional, antibacterial and antioxidant properties. In the conditions of man-caused pollution of Polissya of Ukraine due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, systematic control of the quality and safety of beekeeping products is important. To conduct such research, we created a group of twelve bee families - analogs of the Ukrainian breed, medium strength. Families were kept in unified multifunctional hives. At the beginning of the honey harvest, the bee families were transported to the sunflower fields, where they stayed during the blossoming of the plants. The density of radioactive contamination of 137Cs soils where sunflower was grown was 47.0 kBq / m2. We used organoleptic, physicochemical, microscopic, microbiological, and radiological methods in the study. According to standard methods, we studied the species composition of pollen grains, physicochemical parameters of centrifugal, honeycomb, and «zabrus» sunflower honey.(zabrus honey was obtained from wax caps, which we cut with an apiary knife from honeycombs filled with nectar and sealed by bees). The content of lead (Pb) in honey from sunflower obtained in the conditions of Polissya is 1.8 - 2.1 times higher than the State sanitary norms. The largest amount of it is in the centrifugal honey. In acceptable amounts, the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and 137Cs were present in honey. Pesticides, dichlorodiphenyltrichloromethylmethane, and hexachlorane were not detected in the samples. We investigated the bactericidal action against bacterial growth of typical cultures of Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. Zubrus sunflower honey showed the highest antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. We found that the value of antioxidant activity (AOA) of sunflower honey depends on the method of its production, duration of storage, and solutions of extracts (alcohol, aqueous) used in research. Laboratory control of transgenic organisms in flowers and sunflower pollen did not reveal the target sequences of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter and the NOS terminator (nopaline synthase) of the plasmid Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Bioactive compounds evaluation in different types of Czech and Slovak honeys

Honey contains important bioactive compounds (enzymes, phenolic compounds, vitamins, and minerals) with several positive health effects for humans. In the study six types of honey (acacia, rape, floral, multi flower, forest, and honeydew honeys), of Czech and Slovak origin, were evaluated for bioactive compounds by means of color, polyphenols and antioxidant capacity analyses. The brightest color of honeys, the lowest values measured spectometrically, had acacia and rape honeys, followed by floral, and darker multi flower and forest honeys, and honeydew honeys. Polyphenols (PP) amount, determined by spectrophotometric method with Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, was highest for the darkest honeydew honeys, followed by multi flower and forest honey, brighter floral honeys, and rape and acacia honey. Honeys polyphenols were in the range from 54.0 to 254.2 mg GAE.100g-1. The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was analyzed by spectrometric methods with ABTS and DPPH reagents. Antioxidant capacity values are in agreement with the PP contents order. They were highest also for honeydew honeys (59.2 - 89.6 and 73.1 - 118.7 mg TE.100g-1), followed by multi flower (66.0 and 56.7 mg TE.100g-1) and forest honey (56.0 and 49.1 mg TE.100g-1), then floral honeys (33.0 - 49.2 and 27.8 - 38.7 mg TE.100g-1) and the lowest values for rape (19.0 and 28.1 mg TE.100g-1) and acacia (15.5 and 11.3 mg TE.100g-1)honey. A positive correlation between color, PP amount and TAC was evaluated for analyzed honeys. Darker honey samples showed higher values of phenolic compounds and antioxidant potential, therefore they belong to the honey types with higher amount of bioactive compounds such as antioxidants.