**1. Introduction**

Honey is highly well known and one of the earliest animal products. It has been appreciated throughout civilization and has been recently produced widely in the world [1]. Honey is yellowish or brownish viscid fluid produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowers or from the secretion obtained from the living parts of plants [2]. The honey can be made from a variety of different flowers, and its flavour, texture and chemical composition depend on the floral source from which it was collected. They store the nectar in their sac and enrich it

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

with some of their own substances, invertase enzyme, to introduce chemical changes. It is produced naturally, and when the honeybees return to the hive, they deposit the nectar in honeycombs for storage and ripening [2, 3]. Honey offered to people since the ancient times. It has been used as medicinal food and preservative having multiple tastes and flavours. In addition, the honeybees do not hesitate to use the needle sometimes at the expense of their own lives and that needle is a drug given to human suffering, even natural therapeutic. Besides being enjoyed as honey, it is used in baking or manufacturing of alcoholic beverages by mixing alcohol or by fermentation into honey-flavoured wine. Preparations containing honey, in combination with milk and cereals, are processed for children. Tobacco products are occasionally flavoured with honey. In medicine, honey is used in pure form or prescribed in preparations such as honey milk, fennel honey and ointments for wounds. It is used in cosmetics as glycerol-honey gels and tanning cream products [4].

Honey includes more than hundred substances. The major constituent of honey is sugar and water; however, amino acids, phenolic compounds, vitamins, minerals and enzymes are found in it [5, 6]. In addition, they directly contribute to the flavour of food and precursors of aroma compounds and formed during thermal or enzymatic reactions in production, processing and storage of food. Honey proteins are derived partly from plants and partly from honeybees.

Amino acids are the building blocks of our body. Amino acids help cells regenerate. Regular nutrition helps us avoid getting older as long as human take the necessary amino acids. It is usually very effective in the formation and progression of muscle tissue. And humanbeing owe to amino acids for healthy nails and hair. Regulation of brain function, balancing the mental health, muscle making and energy are related to the function of amino acids. Moreover, in the treatment of several illnesses amino acids are used regularly. Obesity is known as the most common diseases of today, and amino acids are used for fat-shattering in situations where obesity and weight control are required. Amino acids also help to treat cerebral diseases such as attention-deficit hyperactivity, dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, though treatment of those diseases is not fully possible. But amino acid supplements help keep the disease under control. Amino acids are also used in the mental development of school children and in particular stress control from exams. Amino acids are used effectively during the post-operative healing process, especially in burn and wound treatments. Repair and renewal of the tissues is accelerated by amino acids. Another area of use is to delay skin ageing effects and wrinkles, to regain the elastic structure of the drying skin and to prevent hair loss.

As the amino acids are important components of food, and supply the required building blocks or protein synthesis. Considering honey, the amino acids come from animals and vegetables. Amino acid analysis is very important and generally used to identify the origin of honey. There are several techniques concerning amino acid identification, which include multiple steps: sample extraction procedure, derivatization of amino acids, separation and confirmation/quantitation; and also gas chromatography [7] and liquid chromatography [8, 9] methods have been used. Most of the published studies on the determination of amino acids in honey have used derivatization agents and solid-phase extraction (SPE). Although chromatographic separation of amino acids in honey has been confirmed in the literature, due to derivatization step, peaks appearing in residues and matrixes are still challenging, and frequently complete separation cannot be succeeded. It is considered that mass spectrometric (MS) detection is more selective than ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) or fluorescence [10]. It is very substantial to pay special attention to use of MS detection methods for amino acid analysis [1].

Phenolic compounds constitute the important quality parameter of honey and account for their colour, sensory properties and antioxidant activity. Phenolic compounds present in honey can be used as indicators of floral origins and botanical resources, such as pollens, nectars, resins and oils, and the quality of honey [2]. In addition, relatively little is known about honey colour pigments. As an example, the amber colour appears to originate from phenolic compounds and from products of non-enzymatic browning reactions between amino acids and fructose of honey. The health implications also warrant further knowledge of flavonoid contents of the food supply such as honey [13]. It is known that flavonoids and phenolic acids of honey are responsible for significant antioxidant capacity, and other beneficial pharmacologic properties of honey include wound healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and anti-tumoural, protection of skin cells and tissues from oxidative damage and food preservation. Therefore, it is highly demanding to analyse honey and find out which polyphenols are present and in what amount [2, 11, 12, 14, 15].

In this chapter, usage of ultra-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) techniques and methods for the determination of amino acids and phenolic compounds of honey will be explained. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, extremely important advances were made in the development of qualitative and quantitative methods for analysing organic substances. Hence, to check the authenticity and quality control of honey, it is necessary to establish a simple, fast and accurate method to perform extensive honey compositional analysis that will help to identify its most characteristic constituents.
