A novel spectrophotometric method based on Seliwanoff test to determine 5-(Hydroxymethyl) furfural (HMF) in honey: Development, in house validation and application

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of 5-(Hydroxymethyl) furfural (5-HMF) in honey was proposed. In the proposed method based on the qualitative Seliwanoff test, quantitative determination was carried out by measuring the red color formed by reacting the HMF and Seliwanoff reagent (resorcinol-HCl). Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to obtain optimum reaction parameters. The limit of detection, LOD (2.69 mg kg(-1)) and limit of quantification, LOQ (8.97 mg kg(-1)) were established in the model honey matrix. Precision (as RSD for inter and intraday precision) was in the range of 2.52-5.14%. Accuracy results obtained exhibit a good recovery (from 95.83% to 96.65%). Good selectivity and linearity (R-2 > 0.99) were also observed. HMF amounts in honey samples determined by the proposed method were found to be in a relatively good agreement with those obtained by the spectrophotometric Winkler method (r = 0.9880) and HPLC-UV method (r = 0.9888).