Ecuadorian honey types described by Kichwa community in Rio Chico, Pastaza province, Ecuador using Free-Choice Profiling

ABSTRACT

Abstract Pastaza is the largest and least populated province in Ecuador, with seven native indigenous nationalities. The Kichwas from the Rio Chico community live near to the capital city Puyo, are recognized for their knowledge on stingless honey bees. From the 400 species of Neotropical Meliponini that make honey in cerumen pots, almost 100 thrive in Southern Ecuador, and confer such biodiversity to pot-honey. In this study sensory characteristics of Ecuadorian false and genuine honeys with diverse entomological origin Apis mellifera - light amber and amber, Geotrigona leucogastra, Melipona grandis and Scaptotrigona sp. (S. ederi np Schwarz) were investigated with Kichwa assessors (four female and four male, aged 18-62 years old). The panel was asked to taste and to identify sensory attributes of honey (appearance, taste, smell, aroma, mouthfeel, other tactile sensations), and to score their intensities in 10 cm unstructured line scales anchored with the words weak and strong, using the Free-Choice Profile methodology The Generalized Procrustes Analysis was used on the data. The first and second dimensions accounted for by 61.1% of the variance. In the descriptive sensory evaluation, darker honeys (amber A. mellifera, false and Geotrigona) were separated from (light amber A. mellifera, Melipona and Scaptotrigona) by the first dimension; whereas thicker honeys (A. mellifera and false) were discriminated from thinner honeys (Geotrigona, Melipona and Scaptotrigona) by the second dimension. The assessors were able to evaluate and differentiate honey types without previous sensory training. Remarkably, two Kichwa ladies immediately spit out the false honey, in contrast to an acceptance study on 18-honeys, where the false honey was scored among the preferred ones by 58 participants of the First Congress on Apiculture and Meliponiculture in Ecuador. Therefore, results suggest that Ecuadorian native Kichwas keep a sensory legacy of ancestral knowledge with forest products such as honey.