Abstract:Two kinds of mature Apis cerana honey, specifically blueberry and wild rose honeys, were chosen to represent Guizhou specialty honey, while vitex and osmanthus honeys were chosen as controls. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based untargeted metabolomics was employed to perform clustering and functional enrichment analyses on the metabolites of the specialty honey, followed by the screening of differential metabolites and functional annotations. Among the four honeys, the analysis detected a total of 90 metabolites and enrichment in 210 pathways, of which the top 20 pathways belonged to three types: carbohydrate metabolism (8), overview (9), and membrane transport (3). Norepinephrine (NE) was detected in all four honeys and was enriched by saliva, gastric acid, and pancreatic secretions. Additionally, twelve significantly different metabolites (VIP>1, log2FC>1 and p<0.05), including 2-ketobutyric acid, stearic acid, and inositol, were detected. Moreover, 2-ketobutyric acid and 3-hexanedioic acid were found to be characteristic substances that were unique to blueberry and wild rose honeys, respectively. The abilities of the honeys to improve human digestion, absorption, and protein synthesis were ranked in the following order: osmanthus honey > vitex honey > blueberry honey > wild rose honey. Thus, by analyzing the differences in nutritional components from a metabolomics perspective, the characteristic substances in blueberry and wild rose honeys were preliminarily determined. Therefore, the results provide a reference for identifying the authenticity and traceability of honeys.
