Flavour compounds of Greek cotton honey

Finding marker compounds is a powerful tool in the determination of the botanical origin of honey. For this purpose the flavour fraction of Greek cotton honey was investigated. A striking characteristic of this type of honey is the presence of more than 35 phenolic compounds in the extract, accounting for almost 60% of the total amount of compounds positively identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In comparison with honeys of nine different origins, a total of 15 compounds could serve as potent markers for cotton honey, namely cinnamaldehyde (0.44%), cinnamyl alcohol (1.79%), cinnamic acid (1.13%), neryl and geranyl nitrile (0.16 and 0.41% respectively), benzenepropanol (0.5%), homovanillyl alcohol (0.6%), (E)- and (Z)-p-methoxy-cinnamic acid (0.48 and 0.14% respectively), 2-methyl-p-phthalaldehyde (0.22%), coniferaldehyde (0.47%), p-coumaric acid (1.77%), ferulic acid (0.51%), scopoletin and scoparone (0.47%). (c) 2005 Society of Chemical Industry.