in honey is higher than those measured for vitamin C. In particular,
the range of the concentrations measured for vitamin B3 spans
from 27.80 ± 0.04 mg kg−1 to 2.1 ± 0.3 mg kg−1 for samples of citrus
and eucalyptus origins, respectively. This observation suggests that
the botanical origin of the honey influences its content of vitamin
B3. Although the low number of available samples for the unifloral
honeys kept us from reaching conclusions of general significance
regarding this issue, the evident differences in the average concentration
of vitamin B3 for each botanical origin seems to support this
hypothesis.
Vitamin B5 seems to be much less common than vitamin C and
B3. It was quantified only in 12 honey samples and was qualitatively
identified in a further nine samples. On the other hand, when
vitamin B5 is present in honey, it often reaches very high concentrations
(sometimes the highest among all WSVs); in particular this
happened for the three samples of asphodel honey (average vitamin
B5 concentration of 16 ± 6 mg kg−1).
Furthermore, vitamin B9 and vitamin B2 were quantified in
about half of the samples, and their presence was observed in
at least 75% of the samples for the former and 60% for the latter.
For both vitamins the highest concentrations observed are
under 10 mg kg−1. Despite this, vitamin B9 is the most abundant
WSV in eucalyptus honey (five samples, average concentration of
5.6 ± 0.4 mg kg−1) while meaningful concentrations of riboflavin
are always detectable in asphodel and citrus honeys (among
three samples, average concentration of 3.7 ± 0.3 mg kg−1 and
2.2 ± 0.2 mg kg−1, respectively).