Dear all,
I am looking for a simple method to detect high concentration sucrose (>5%) in honey which doesn't require expensive equipment and reagents. It is better if it could be used on field.
It don't need to be very accurate.
Can I use a Polarimeter to estimate it?
Zha
Hello here the two simple method for detection of sucrose in honey. Naturally sucrose content in honey can variate from 3 to 7 % even till 11% for acacia flower honey. Normally sucrose content for honey till 5% is normal above is indicate some falsification if acacia flower not used.
A. Fiehe’s Test: Add 5 ml of solvent ether to 5 ml of honey. Shake well and decant the ether layer in a petri dish. Evaporate completely by blowing the ether layer. Add 2 to 3 ml of resorcinol (1 gm. Of resorcinol resublimed in 5 ml of conc. HCl.) Appearance of cherry red colour indicates presence of sucrose /above 5%.
2. Aniline Chloride Test : Take 5 ml of honey in a porcelain dish. Add Aniline Chloride solution (3 ml of Aniline and 7 ml of 1:3 HCl) and stir well. Orange red colour indicates presence of sucrose.
For better understanding of colors you can prepare sucrose solutions 2%, 5, 7, 10 % and perform reactions using sucrose solution instead honey. After it you can understand which color is above 5 %. More simple methods than this I don't know.
Thank you Karen for your detailed answer.
I will use your method in my lab.
Did you ever try to use Polarimeter to estimate excess sucrose in honey, based on the different optical rotation between sucrose, glucose and fructose ?
Do you mean 5g of honey and not 5 ml of honey? Is there a reference for this modification of Fiehe's test?
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