Identification of volatile components in Carthamus tinctorius honey using widely-targeted volatilome

Safflower honey (SH) is highly valued for its unique aromatic components and potentialbiological activity. However, the current volatile profiles on SH are insufficient. Here, we characterized the pollen feature of SH and safflower pollen (SP) from pollen analysis, and performed a widely-targeted volatilome analysis on SH and SP. A total of 374 shared significantly different metabolites were identified between safflower pollen and safflower honey, including 90 terpenoids, 58 esters, 56 heterocyclic compounds, 33 alcohols and others. Of these, hotrienol was the most significantly up-regulated aroma component of SH, and therefore likely to contribute to the sweet and floral flavour. In addition, the characteristic components of safflower essential oil such as linalool, terpinen-4-ol, α-terpineol, benzaldehyde and others were detected in SH. These results suggest that safflower honey may have potential health benefits similar to those of its parent plant and could be used as a novel functional food.