A Targeted Metabolomic Procedure for the Identification of Isophorone Related Compounds in Honey

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the origin of isophorone related compounds, often called as norisoprenoids, in natural products such as honey. Norisoprenoids are volatile compounds and therefore may be identified and semi-quantified using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. In that sense, the reproducible and non-invasive method of headspace solid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GS/MS), representing a targeted metabolomics procedure, was applied to 163 honey samples. Honeys belonged to four different floral types and were collected from sixteen different regions in Greece. Results showed that total isophorone content (TIC) was greatly affected by honey botanical origin and was positively correlated with moisture content using Pearson’s correlation (r=0.84) (p<0.05).