Abstract

Some physicochemical properties (water content, sugar content, viscosity, pH and conductivity) were determined for honey samples from North-Central Nigeria to evaluate their global behaviour and comparison with other honey samples. The water content and sugar content varied within the range of (18.22 - 36.82%) and (63.82 - 80.25%) respectively. The pH increased with increase in water content and the conductivities of the samples had correlation with proportion of minor constituents in the honey samples. The relationship among water content (w), temperature (t) and viscosity (η) for different honey samples of may be represented as η = 17.678× 10³ exp (-0.32w - 0.088t). The temperature dependence of viscosity was evaluated with Arrhenius model, the activation energy with value of 70.07 kJ/g is fairly unaffected by moisture content.

Key words: Honey, viscosity, characterisation, water content, pH, sugar content.