Exploration of Foods and Foodomics

Table 1. Melissopalynological analysis results of the commercial honey samples studied.

Honey sample	Predominant pollen (> 45%)	Secondary pollen (16–45%)	Important minor pollen (3–15%)	Minor pollen (< 3%)	Isolated pollen	Remarks
Heather sample 1	None	Trifolium sp. (27%), Rhamnaceae (22%), Smilax sp. (18%), Castanea sativa (17%)	Boraginaceae (4%), Umbelliferae (3%), Liliaceae (3%), Robinia sp. (3%)	Arbutus unedo, Asteraceae	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Ephedra, Phlomis fruticosa, Asphodelus sp., Scrophulariaceae, Tribulus sp.	This coniferous honey does not contain any heather as stated on the label.
Heather sample 2	Erica sp., Ericaceae (66%)	Trifolium sp. (16%)	Rhamnaceae (6%), Brassicaceae (5%), Umbelliferae (3%)	Boraginaceae, Compositae	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Arbutus unedo, Hypericum sp., Convolvulus arvensis, Polygonum aviculare, Liliaceae, Rubus, Genista sp.	This is heather honey.
Heather sample 3	Erica sp., Ericaceae (38%)	Trifolium sp. (24%)	Brassicaceae (13%), Liliaceae (13%), Rhamnaceae (5%), Umbelliferae (3%)	Boraginaceae, Asteraceae, Myrtaceae	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Arbutus unedo, Hypericum sp., Convolvulus arvensis, Genista sp.	It is a mixture of heather and conifer honey. To be classified as heather honey, the percentage of heather pollen grains must be ≥ 45% [4]. The honey is also sour, and the moisture content was measured higher than 19%, which is very high for Greek honey.
Orange sample 1	Trifolium sp. (50%)	Brassicaceae (16%)	Rubus (7%), Erica sp., (7%), Boraginaceae (6%), Hedera helix (5%), Asteraceae (5%), citrus (3%)	None	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Olea europaea, Liliaceae, Umbelliferae, Hypericum sp., Verbascum sp.	This is orange honey. HMF is higher than the regulated levels.
Orange sample 2	None	Brassicaceae (25%), Trifolium sp. (18%)	Hedera helix (9%), Liliaceae (8%), Pyrus/Prunus (7%), Rubus (7%), Umbelliferae (6%), Boraginaceae (6%), Asteraceae (6%), citrus (3%), Phlomis fruticosa (3%)	Erica sp.	Cistaceae, Olea europaea, Hypericum sp.	This is orange honey. HMF is higher than the regulated levels.
Orange sample 3	None	Brassicaceae (32%), Trifolium sp. (29%)	Erica sp. (15%), Boraginaceae (8%), Liliaceae (5%), citrus (3%), Asteraceae (3%), Pyrus/Prunus (3%)	Phlomis fruticosa	Umbelliferae, Cistaceae, Olea europaea, Hypericum sp., Arbutus unedo	This is orange honey.
Fir sample 1	Castanea sativa (60%)	Erica sp., Ericaceae (19%)	Rhamnaceae (8%), Brassicaceae (5%), Trifolium sp. (3%), Asteraceae (3%)	Pyrus/Prunus, Boraginaceae	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Verbascum sp., Hypericum sp.	This is fir honey.
Fir sample 2	Castanea sativa (79%)	None	Rhamnaceae (8%), Brassicaceae (5%), Trifolium sp. (3%)	Asteraceae, Erica sp., Asteraceae Boraginaceae, Vicia sp., Boraginaceae	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Hypericum sp., Salix sp., Umbelliferae, Verbascum sp., Arbutus unedo, Convolvulus arvensis	This is fir honey.
Fir sample 3	Castanea sativa (60%)	None	Erica sp., Ericaceae (15%), Trifolium sp. (15%), Brassicaceae (6%)	Asteraceae, Erica sp., Asteraceae Boraginaceae, Vicia sp., Genista sp., Pyrus/Prunus, Compositae, Umbelliferae, Vicia sp.	Quercus ilex, Cistaceae, Hypericum sp., Brassicaceae, Boraginaceae, Salix sp., Umbelliferae, Verbascum sp., Arbutus unedo, Convolvulus arvensis	This is fir honey.

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Declarations

Author contributions

MEG: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation. EI: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing—original draft. DGL: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing—original draft. MS: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation. SK: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation. KK: Supervision. NDA: Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation. IKK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing—review & editing, Writing—original draft, Supervision, Visualization, Project administration. All authors read and approved the submitted version.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

All data presented in the article, including data cited from other publications, are traceable to their sources, and all references are closely relevant to and supportive of the content of the article. The datasets supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

The current study was partially funded by the funding programme “MEDICUS’’ of the University of Patras. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Copyright

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Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.

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