Indeed, the composition and properties of honey vary mainly in function of the floral sources utilized by bees (Moar 1985 Terrab et al. 2014), clearly influencing its sensory characteristics. Floristic composition is a determinant factor in a honeys chemical content (Aazza et al. 1994 Gillespie and Henwood 1994 Torres and Galetto 1998). Nectar production and its characteristics may fluctuate considerably in response to sometimes subtle changes in the environment, such as wind, temperature, soil moisture, or even the position of the flower on the plant and pollinator activity (Bertsch 1983 Hiebert and Caldera 1983 Pleasants 1983 Devlin and Stephensen 1985 Wilsen and Agren 1989 Belmonte et al. The ratio between these two compounds makes this nectar more attractive to bees, thought to reflect the co-evolution between these plants and their main pollinators (Baker and Baker 1983 Petanidou et al. in particular ( Thymus loscosii Willk, Thymus vulgaris L., Thymus granatensis Boiss, Thymus arundanus Willk), produce a nectar rich in phenylalanine and sucrose. This family in general, and the genre Thymus L. It is well known that species of the Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family are mainly pollinated by bees, even though they are visited by a relatively wide spectrum of insects (Dommée et al. The chemical content of the nectar is generally constant within a species (Nicolson 2007 Nicolson and Thornburg 2007) and flowers pollinated by long-tongued bees or butterflies tend to produce sucrose-rich nectar (Baker and Baker 1983 Nepi et al. Floral nectar is a nutrient-rich solution offered by plants to their insect pollinators (Simpson and Neff 1983), and it is generally accepted that there is a co-evolutionary relationship between the sugar content of the nectar and the preference of some pollinators for certain sugars in their diet. Honey is a product derived from the nectar and sugar exudate of plants, material gathered and modified by honeybees, and stored in honeycombs. The present work demonstrates that soil type (gypsum or limestone) influences the characteristics of honey, potentially providing added market value to these products. Indeed, the soil type of the hives’ settlement area, limestone or gypsum, influences the conductivity, antioxidant capacity, colour and floristic composition.
The quantification of certain physicochemical parameters of the honey indicated these features were influenced by the soil type. Within the same geographical area and despite a similar thyme pollen content, we observed variation in the physicochemical, antioxidant and sensorial characteristics of monofloral honeys.
The physical and chemical properties of each samples were analyzed using standard assays. MethodsĪ total of 70 honey samples from hives situated on limestone (38 samples) or gypsum soils (32 samples) were studied. Thymus is a genus of aromatic perennial plants that are native to Europe, North Africa and Asia. As such, we analysed the features of a typical single-flower honey, thyme honey, produced in a specific Mediterranean region. The objective of this work was to determine the influence of the soil substrate on the characteristics and properties of a specific type of honey.