Variation in Antioxidative Potential of Processed and Unprocessed Honey samples from Central India. A plausible role of Quinolin and Gallic acid as antioxidants.

Honey is a natural product having high economic importance since ages. Traditional medicine has recognised it as a potent medicine for a variety of ailments. However, only recently modern medicine has recognised its medicinal importance. Many reports have shown that honey exhibits antioxidant, free radical scavenging, anti bacterial and other bioactive properties and these properties depend mostly on the differences attributed to varied regional as well as floral origins of honey samples. The present investigation was carried out to access bioactive properties of different honey samples (processed and unprocessed) belonging to different regions of central India. A comparison was made with flowers of Rosa hybrid (Rose) and Calendula officinalis (Marigold), which were commonly employed by honey bees as a source of nector. The results demonstrated that flowers exhibit maximum antioxidant activity (Marigold-80%, Rose-76.7%) and total phenolic content (Marigold-1105.7mgGAEQ/kg, Rose-1741.3 mgGAEQ/kg) as compared to honey samples. Processed honey samples exhibited a lower antioxidant activity as compared to unprocessed honey samples. Sample G and H, which were unprocessed honey sample showed maximum antioxidant activity 64.5 and 71.8%, and phenolic content-(765.3 and 814.4mgGAEQ/kg). MS analysis showed that Sample G-H contained Quinolin and Gallic acid, which might be responsible for the observed property. It appears that during industrial processing of honey these constituents are lost, which leads significant reduction in antioxidant property.