A headspace solid-phase microextraction method development and its application in the determination of volatiles in honeys by gas chromatography

Abstract The first part of the paper presents the detailed optimisation of all steps of the determination procedure of volatiles from Polish honeys by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) as the sample preparation method and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) as the method of final determination. In the result, the following conditions were applied: CAR/PDMS/DVB SPME fibre, the sample composition (5:1 w/w honey to water ratio), 3 g sample size. The other procedure parameters, like the temperatures of individual stages of the process, were also included. The methodology of semi-quantative analysis allowed the isolation and identification of volatile fraction compounds from popular Polish honeys, rape, acacia, linden, buckwheat, heather, polyfloral and honey-dew. In the effect, it was possible to determine the series of compounds which may be the indicators of varieties and organoleptic quality of Polish honeys (almost 200 compounds were identified, aliphatic and aromatic acids, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, terpenoids and derivatives of furan and pyran). Some of the compounds were found for the first time, but a significant number had already been reported in many other papers.