Trace Level Molecular Detection in Organic Honey Relevant for Therapeutic Applications

Honey is used for therapeutic applications, for a long time, in various schools of medicine such as Ayurveda, Unani, Chinese etc. It has a rich antioxidant profile along with the presence of phenolics, enzymes, flavonoids, carbohydrates, organic acids, terpenes, proteins and pollens etc. The direct or indirect additions of honey with sugar syrups, antibiotics or pesticides reduces its nutritional as well as therapeutic value. In this work, we have utilized our in house developed sensor to perform quality assessment of two different honey samples and could distinguish high quality organic honey from ordinary honey. Both honey samples were also tested for presence of chloramphenicol which is a commonly used antibiotic in India.