Perfil de volátiles por CG-EM de una miel de Erica Melipona favosa que huele a clavo de olor es producida en la Península de Paraguaná, estado Falcón, Venezuela

Melipona favosa (Fabricius, 1798) was the first stingless bee described as Apis favosa by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius, who proposed the basis for modern insect classification since the 18th century. The Melipona Illiger, 1806 genus was described later. A sample of Erica M. favosa honey with a distinctive clove smell was collected between Moruy and Guacurebo, in a meliponary at the foothills of Santa Ana hill, Falcon Municipality, Falcon state, Venezuela. Until El Niño in 1999 only peninsular Erica honey was produced before the arrival of Africanized bees. The abundance of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of this honey was studied in triplicates by head space-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GCMS). A set of 63 VOCs were detected consisting of 14 acids, 13 alcohols, 6 aldehydes, 10 esters, 7 ketones, 2 monoterpenes, 4 oxides, and 7 unknown compounds. The most abundant were cis linalool oxide, trans linalool oxide, and acetic acid. The VOC that smells like clove was not identified. It is clearly not eugenol, but may be an unknown compound from another plant. It is ruled out that it is contamination, but here is a documented case study: In pasteurized orange juice, the formation of the clove-like odorant 5-vinylguaiacol originated after residues of the cleaning agent peracetic acid reacted with the natural orange flavonoid hesperidin after heating