PHYSICOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SPANISH COMMERCIAL EUCALYPTUS HONEYS

The physicochemical characteristics of 25 samples of commercial Eucalyptus honey (Eucalyptus sp.), bought off the shelf, were analysed and 35 parameters were measured, including contents of sugars and minerals, total nitrogen, proline, water content, pH, acidity, HMF, diastase activity, colour, ash, insoluble solids and electrical conductivity. The samples contained a mean of 18 pollen types (range 14-27); the 64% of samples which contained more than 70% Eucalyptus pollen were considered to be unifloral. In 92% of the samples, Eucalyptus was the most abundant pollen, at over 45% of total pollen found. Maturity, purity, deterioration and adulteration criteria indicated that the quality of the honeys was good. Samples that did not have a dominant percentage of Eucalyptus pollen showed low values for the length of the main wavelength in spectrophotometric analysis and very small concentrations of magnesium.