COMPARATIVE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF NATURAL HONEY COLLECTED FROM TRADITIONAL BEE-BREEDERS IN OGUN STATE.
*Adebowale, O.J.1, Salaam, H.A1 and Agboola, O.A2.
1Department of Food Technology, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, Nigeria.
2Department of Pure and Applied Biology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria.
E-mail: jimiolalekan@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Comparative studies on the physico-chemical composition of natural honey produced by traditional bee- breeders from the three senatorial districts in Ogun state were investigated. These districts were: Ogun-East, Ogun-Central and Ogun-West consisting of nine, six and five local government areas respectively. Double-stage multistage clustered sampling was used to carry out the studies on the selected six (6) local government areas that were finally chosen for the studies. Fresh natural honey samples were collected in sterile pet bottles and were analyzed for hydroxymethyfurfural, reducing sugar, pH, specific gravity, refractive index, total solids, titratable acidity, moisture and ash contents, and sucrose. Values range of 43.4 to 53.1(ppm); 70.2 to 76.4 (%); 2.73 to 3.74; 1.255 to 1.402; 1.446 to 1.448; 73.5 to 77.5(%); 0.62 to 1.63; 22.5 to 26.5 (%); 1.2 to 2.8 (%) and 3.23 to 4.72 (%) for hydroxymethyfurfural, reducing sugar, pH, specific gravity, refractive index, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, moisture, ash contents and sucrose respectively were recorded. Results obtained from the study however, showed that moisture and ash contents do not conform with the standards (Codex Alimentarius Commission and European Union) in that, values obtained were higher the those of the standards. Conversely, data obtained for titratable acidity, refractive index, reducing sugars, sucrose and to some extent the hydroxymethyfurfural were in agreement with the standards. Generally, all the honey samples investigated were highly acidic with high total soluble solids (sugars) and hence, a good-preserve.