What does astronomy have to do with different flavours of honey?

As scientists at the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Honey Bee Products have discovered – there is much to gain from unexpected research partnerships.

Under the supervision of School of Allied Health Associate Professor Cornelia Locher, The University of Western Australia PhD candidate Md Khairul Islam is working with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) to identify the unique chemical signature of different Western Australian honey varieties.

Image: Dr Liz Barbour, Kevin Vinsen, Professor Cornelia Locher and Md Khairul Islam.

As CRC for Honey Bee Products chief executive Liz Barbour explained, the flavour profile of a honey is dependent on the different plants that the bee feeds on.

“Plant nectars all contain different phenolics, such as flavonoids, and also a whole range of other compounds,” Dr Barbour said.

“The bee will take that nectar into the honey, and the chemical signature stays there.”

Given that bees typically feed on many different flowers – and with more than 250 plants for WA bees to choose from – beekeepers have previously been unable to confirm the exact flavour signature of their honey.

CRC for Honey Bee Products food chemist Mr Islam said the most challenging aspect of his PhD so far had been identifying the nectar source of the honeys.

“Honeys collected from natural sources will never be 100 per cent mono-floral, because we can’t restrict the movement of bees in nature,” he said.

“So far, we have been able to identify the key nectar signature of some iconic WA honeys using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) such as jarrah, marri, red bell and coastal peppermint.”

"Internationally, our method has already been adopted by analytical industries and applied to routine quality control or analysis of honeys."

Md Khairul Islam

ICRAR data intensive astronomer Kevin Vinsen quickly saw the parallels between the honey profiles and star spectroscopy.

Mr Vinsen suggested they use a machine learning technique to interpret the different analysis images of the non-sugar fraction of honey generated by HPTLC to identify their unique chemical signatures, quickly and accurately.

Image: PhD candidate Md Khairul Islam displaying the honey signatures from the HPTLC analysis.

“When you look at a star, it has a light curve, which shows you the intensity of the photons across different wavelengths,” he said.

“With the honey, what we’re seeing is the intensity of the chemical signature across a range.”

Mr Islam will present his research into the authentication and quality control of WA honeys at The UWA Institute of Agriculture’s Postgraduate Showcase on Thursday, 23 June 2022.