Preserving longan flower honey by using high hydrostatic pressure, ultra-sonic and thermal processing does no damage to the honey’s nutritional values.
A study examining the three methods of preserving the sweet stuff is published online in Food Bioscience, to be published in that journal’s June 2015 edition.
The impact of the above processing methods on the honey’s phenolic contents and flavonoids and antioxidant capacities were determined during this study.
It was found that the high pressure, ultra-sonic and thermal treatments did have a significant effect on the honey’s antioxidative properties. Pressurization actually significantly increased the honey’s phenols, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity – the bioactive compounds actually were enhanced by ultra-sonication and went up with the amplitude levels and treatment times.
Thermal treatments, however, had no significant differences when compared to the control, while the sample heated at 100°C contained the lowest levels of phenols and antioxidant capacity.
Therefore, both high pressure and ultra-sonic processing are an alternative technique to preserve the antioxidative qualities of longan flower -honey, while also not affecting the nutritional values.
DR. Rao