Development of GC-MS based metabolomics methods and applications for honey analysis

Honey is accepted as an energy-providing food and an important medicine in many countries of the world due to its functional properties and nutritional values. Honey is also known for its biological, physiological and pharmacological activities. Honey contains approximately 200 different components. In addition to its main component, sugars; It contains water, proteins, organic acids, vitamins, minerals, pigments, phenolic substances, a wide variety of volatile components and solid particles resulting from the way, honey is harvested. However, there is not much research on the honey metabolome. Research has generally focused on flavonoids and volatile compounds. Molecules in these two groups form secondary metabolites in honey, unlike primary metabolites, and they generally differ according to the floral origin of honey. Therefore, they are important compounds for the classification and authentication of honey. The scope of this thesis encompasses the examination of eleven monofloral honey samples produced from various regions of Turkey. The studies conducted yielded a considerable number of metabolites, which were used to create profiles for each monofloral honey species. In order to identify as many metabolites as possible, the extraction method and derivatization steps were optimized. A suitable method has been developed for GC-MS-based metabolite analysis with the objective of defining the metabolic profile of honey. This was achieved by initially defining the metabolic profile of honey using Fiehn, Kovartz, HMDB and MoNa (Mass Bank of North Amerıca) libraries. Subsequently, the metabolomic profile of monofloral honey species was examined by performing bioinformatic analyses. The average number of metabolites detected in eleven different types of monofloral honey was fifty-three.