**Antioxidant Activity, Total Phenolic Content, Individual Phenolics and Physicochemical Parameters Suitability for Romanian Honey Authentication**

### **Daniela Pauliuc, Florina Dranca and Mircea Oroian \***

Faculty of Food Engineering, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720225 Suceava, Romania; daniela\_pauliuc@yahoo.com (D.P.); florina.dranca@usm.ro (F.D.) **\***Tel.:

 Correspondence: m.oroian@fia.usv.ro; +40-744-524-872 Accepted:

 4 March 2020; Published: 8 March 2020

**Abstract:** The present study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of honey (raspberry, mint, rape, sunflower, thyme and polyfloral) produced in Romania. The honey samples were from the 2017 to 2018 harvest and were subjected to melissopalynological analysis, alongside the determination of the following physicochemical parameters: moisture content, pH, free acidity, electrical conductivity (EC), hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content, color, total polyphenols content (TPC), flavonoids content (FC), DPPH radical scavenging activity, phenolic acids, flavonols, sugars and organic acids in order to evaluate the usefulness of this parameters for the classification of honey according to botanical origin. The results of the melissopalynological analysis revealed that five types of honey samples had a percentage of pollen grains above the minimum of 45%, which was required in order to classify the samples as monofloral honey. The total polyphenols content reached the maximum value in the case of dark honey such as mint honey, followed by raspberry, thyme and polifloral honey. Fructose, glucose, maltose, sucrose, turanose, trehalose, melesitose, and ra ffinose were identified and quantified in all samples. Gluconic acid was the main organic acid in the composition of all honey samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed the possibility of the botanical authentication of honey based on these physicochemical parameters.

**Keywords:** honey; authentication; physicochemical parameters; PCA
