조성우 (서울대학교 농생명공학부 식품대사체학연구실)

이도엽 (서울대학교 농생명공학부 식품대사체학연구실)

조성우 (서울대학교 농생명공학부 식품대사체학연구실)

조준우 (서울대학교 농생명공학부 식품대사체학연구실)

이도엽 (서울대학교 농생명공학부 식품대사체학연구실)

Honey maturity is closely associated with chemical composition, quality, and functionality of honey. In general, naturally matured honey (NMH) is naturally ripened through sufficient dehydration and enzymatic processes in the hive. In contrast, artificially concentrated honey (ACH) is harvested before complete natural ripening and subjected to artificial processing such as vacuum heating to reduce its moisture content. Although NMH and ACH can similarly result in reduction of moisture, in-hive maturation and artificial treatment may lead to different metabolomic profiles.

 In this study, LC-Orbitrap MS based untargeted metabolomics was applied to investigate metabolomic differences between acacia NMH (n = 110) and acacia ACH (n = 62). By comparing their metabolomic profiles, this study aimed to evaluate whether NMH and ACH could be differentiated based on their chemical composition. Multivariate and univariate statistical analyses were performed to explore overall metabolomic patterns and identify metabolites showing group-associated differences in abundance. Furthermore, the identified metabolites were annotated using references to investigate their potential associations with the different concentration processes. This study provides metabolomic insights into the chemical differences between naturally matured acacia honey and artificially concentrated acacia honey and facilitates the investigation of chemical components associated with different honey concentration processes.