**4. Chilean unifloral honey**

Chile produces a limited number of unifloral honeys with native plant origins. Montenegro et al. [10] identified the species of native plants that *A. mellifera* uses as the most intensive source of nectar. These species include *Q. saponaria* (quillay, soapbark), *E. cordifolia* (ulmo), *G. avellana* (avellano), *E. pulverulenta* (corontillo), *R. trinervia* (tevo), *Caldcluvia paniculata* (tiaca), *W. trichosperma* (tineo), and species of genus *Azara* (corcólen). They are used as the source for monofloral honey, which are selected by honeybees mainly due to the volume and chemical composition of nectar offered by the flowers [4, 7, 10] (**Table 1**).


**Table 1.** Botanical origin of unifloral honey in Chile.

The melissopalynology technique is quite laborious, time-consuming and requires a highskilled and trained technician. Thus, a large number of research groups worldwide have focused their attention and studies on improving the knowledge of honey characterization. The most promising approach appears to be the simultaneous detection of multiple components utilizing spectroscopic methods along with statistical analysis. Chemometrics along with Raman, FTIR, NMR, and NIR spectroscopic methods have been used for defining the floral origin of honey and development of classification models. These procedures promptly provide quantitative information without complex pretreatment of samples and primarily through a single spectroscopic technique [6, 8, 9]. Despite advances in these methods in the last few years, limitations still exist in these studies related to the small number of samples and the validity of the proposed methods are rarely demonstrated [8]. Notwithstanding, the emerging new methods are making way to new frontiers in honey characterization. The most promising strategy appears to be the multidisciplinary one, which focuses on the detection of multiple components assisted by chemometrics. Apicultural industries and small producers will make the most of the advantages of more advanced methods which allow for more scrupulous controls, increasing the quality level

**Figure 1.** Plants species and respective pollens (microscope 400x) (a) *Retanilla trinervia* (tevo), (b) *Quillaja saponaria* (quillay), (c) *Escallonia pulverulenta* (corontillo), (d) *Azara petiolaris* (corcolén), (e) *Eucryphia cordifolia* (ulmo), (f) *Weinmannia* 

*trichosperma* (tineo), (g) *Gevuina avellana* (avellano chileno), and (h) *Caldcluvia paniculata* (tiaca).

Chile produces a limited number of unifloral honeys with native plant origins. Montenegro et al. [10] identified the species of native plants that *A. mellifera* uses as the most intensive

and safety of honey and derivatives [9].

**4. Chilean unifloral honey**

66 Honey Analysis

A recent study of the biological properties of Chilean unifloral honeys indicates that Chilean native honey presented significant differences in their antioxidant as well as biological activity, which depends on the botanical and geographical origin, and can be associated with polyphenol content. Moreover, the presence of other species in the total botanical content of honey plays an important role in the modulation of its biological properties [11].

In Chile, the most emblematic flower honey, both for its abundance and sensory characteristics, is quillay (*Q. saponaria)* and ulmo (*E. cordifolia*). The antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Chilean honey have been studied in the last years with excellent results. *Q. saponaria, E. cordifolia*, and *R. trinervia* are within the Chilean endemic species that produce monofloral honey that show antibacterial activity against pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and also multiresistant strains [4, 10–14]. With regard to antioxidant activity, honey from *Q. saponaria* and *Azara petiolaris* stand out due to potential shown in various *in vitro* models utilized to evaluate natural antioxidant capacity to inactivate reactive species. The positive correlation between phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity is verified in some of these models. Phenolic compounds such as aromatic acids and flavonoids are considered to be responsible for antioxidant capacity since they have a chemical structure particularly suitable to exert an antioxidant action acting as free radical scavengers neutralizing reactive oxygen species and chelating metal ions.
