Phenolic profiles, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and DNA damage inhibitory activities of chestnut honeys from Black Sea Region of Turkey

Abstract

Honey is the product of beekeeping that has great market potential thanks to valuable nutritional and medicinal qualities. Black Sea Region coast of Turkey is suitable for production of chestnut production so chestnut-based honeys are highly produced in this region. To prove the beneficial therapeutic properties, 49 chestnut (Castania sativa Mill.) honey samples from the cities of Black Sea Region were investigated in terms of colors, total phenolic and flavonoid contents, antioxidant activities, antimicrobial potentials, phenolics, and effects on hydroxyl radical-induced DNA breaks in the non-site-specific system. The amount of flavonoid was found to be limited in chestnut honey samples compared to the phenolic acids. A wide variation was observed in the amounts of total antioxidant activities of honey samples. It was displayed that most of the tested honey samples had the ability to repair the DNA breaks created by hydroxyl radicals.