In previous works on authentic samples of saffron of known history (harvest and processing year, storage conditions, and length of time) some biomarkers were proposed using both FT-IR and NMR metabolomics regarding the shelf life of the product. This work addresses the difficulties to trace back the “age” of commercial saffron samples of unknown history, sets a limit value above which these products can be considered substandard, and offers a useful tool to combat saffron mislabeling and fraud with low-quality saffron material. Investigations of authentic and commercial saffron samples of different origin and harvest year, which had been stored under controlled conditions for different lengths of time, allowed a clear-cut clustering of samples in two groups according to the storage period irrespectively of the provenience. In this respect, the four-year cut off point proposed in our previous work assisted to trace back the “age” of unknown samples and to check for possible mislabeling practices.

In recent years, fermented foods have attracted increasing attention due to their important role in the human diet, since they supply beneficial health effects, providing important sources of nutrients. In this respect, a comprehensive characterization of the metabolite content in fermented foods is required to achieve a complete vision of physiological, microbiological, and functional traits. In the present preliminary study, the NMR-based metabolomic approach combined with chemometrics has been applied, for the first time, to investigate the metabolite content of Phaseolus vulgaris flour fermented by different lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts. A differentiation of microorganisms (LAB and yeasts), LAB metabolism (homo- and heterofermentative hexose fermentation), LAB genus (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, and Pediococcus), and novel genera (Lacticaseibacillus, Lactiplantibacillus, and Lentilactobacillus) was achieved. Moreover, our findings showed an increase of free amino acids and bioactive molecules, such as GABA, and a degradation of anti-nutritional compounds, such as raffinose and stachyose, confirming the beneficial effects of fermentation processes and the potential use of fermented flours in the production of healthy baking foods. Finally, among all microorganisms considered, the Lactiplantibacillus plantarum species was found to be the most effective in fermenting bean flour, as a larger amount of free amino acids were assessed in their analysis, denoting more intensive proteolytic activity.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has emerged as a technology for metabolite characterisation of both foods and plants. NMR technique allows to analyse metabolite content in a single experiment, in a non-destructive way and with a very simple sample preparation. This study characterises the metabolites of Perilla frutescens var. crispa leaf and flower for the first time by NMR. Our results showed higher metabolite content in leaves compared to flowers, highlighting the presence of amino acids, organic acids, saccharides and large amounts of aromatic compounds, mainly in the form of rosmarinic acid. Moreover, we cultivated Perilla, an important medicinal plant native to Asia, in a low mountain environment in Italy, to continue its evaluation as a honeybee attractive species. Interestingly, even in this type of environment, Perilla has been confirmed to be a good bee plant for both nectar and pollen.

Honeydew honey represents a bee-derived product with different organoleptic characteristics and distinct properties with respect to floral honey. The market interest in honeydew honey has been growing in recent years due to its higher bioactive characteristics with respect to floral honey. The need for a deeper chemical characterization aimed to evaluate a possible botanical differentiation attracted the use of different analytical approaches. The present work aims to distinguish the botanical honeydew origin by using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and a multivariate approach. Two different data pretreatments have been considered to obtain the best sample discrimination. The saccharide content significantly affects the differentiation of the botanical variety consisting of fir, oak, citrus fruits, eucalyptus, and forest mainly by using a classification approach taking advantage of the Orthogonal Signal Correction filters. Notwithstanding the botanical diversity of the honeydew honey (HDH) samples, fir honeydew (F-HDH), oak honeydew (O-HDH), and eucalyptus honeydew (E-HDH) resulted always well discriminated among all the botanical varieties investigated, while citrus fruits honeydew (CF-HD) and forest honeydew (FO-HDH) did not. In particular, F-HDH resulted characterized by sucrose, erlose, maltose, maltotriose, maltotetraose, and melezitose, E-HDH resulted enriched in α, β-glucose and β-fructose in furanosidic form, and O-HDH enriched in β-fructose in furanosidic form, isomaltose.