Analysis of volatile composition of honey by solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Honey aroma is largely dependent on its volatile fraction, which in turn is influenced by nectar composition and by possible modifications after harvesting. Solid phase microextraction (SPME) allows a simple and rapid fractionation of volatile compounds in honey as a prior step to their GC-MS qualitative and quantitative determination. A simple SPME-based procedure has been developed for GC-MS analysis of honey volatiles and applied to the study of 6 different commercial honeys. The possibility of honey characterization from the analytical data obtained by the SPME method is discussed.