Determination of selected essential and non-essential metals of honey in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Honey is a sweet natural product produced by bees. It has many beneficial health promoting effects. The essential and non-essential metals’ contents of bee honey samples collected from Damot Gale district were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The samples were digested to obtain the essential and non-essential metals by optimum digestion condition. The digestion method for honey analysis was found to be efficient for all in the analyzed metals. The analysis was validated through the recovery experiments showing that a good percentage recovery (95.7-103%). The results obtained from honey samples collected from the bee farmers revealed that the values of pH, moisture and ash content of mid land to be 3.65 ± 0.062, 16.77 ± 0.06 and 0.42 ± 0.006, respectively while the low land part is 3.88 ± 0.057, 16.97 ± 0.034 and 0.46 ± 0.003, respectively. The results of this study revealed that the concentrations of most metals are higher in the honey samples collected from low land part than mid land part within the selected sites. This study’s result was compared with other reported values and found almost comparable. The results of current finding were also compared with international standards set by WHO/FAO and revealed that the levels of some essential and non- essential metals in honey samples were within permissible limits. Therefore, the finding of this study indicated that the honey of the study areas was found safe for consumption regarding studied metal concentration.