Detection of Korean Native Honey and European Honey by Using Duplex Polymerase Chain Reaction and Immunochromatographic Assay

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Korean native honey (KNH) is much more expensive than European honey (EH) in Korea,
because KNH is a favored honey which is produced less than EH. Food fraud of KNH has
drawn attention of the government office concerned, which is in need of a method to differentiate
between KNH and EH which are produced by the Asiatic honeybee, Apis cerana and
the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, respectively. A method to discriminate KNH and EH
was established by using duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in this study. Immunochromatographic
assay (IC) was examined to analyze the duplex PCR product. The DNA sequences
of primers for the duplex PCR were determined by comparing cytochrome C oxidase
genes of the two honey bee species. Chelex resin method was more efficient in extracting
genomic DNA from honey than the other two procedures of commercial kits. The duplex
PCR amplifying DNA of 133 bp were more sensitive than that amplifying DNA of 206 bp in
detecting EH in the honey mixture of KNH and EH. Agarose gel electrophoresis and IC
detected the DNA of 133 bp at the ratios of down to 1% and 5% EH in the honey mixture,
respectively and also revealed that several KNH products distributed by internet shopping
sites were actually EH. In conclusion, the duplex PCR with subsequent IC could also discriminate
between KNH and EH and save time and labor.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Acknowledgements