Abstract:
In order to strengthen the supervision of the quality of royal jelly, a method for royal jelly adulteration identification was established using elemental analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS). Base on the
δ13C values of 106 authentic royal jelly samples from different production areas, the
δ13C value limits for the authentic royal jelly samples were proposed. The
δ13C value of royal jelly should be lower than or equal to -21.5‰ and the
δ13C difference between protein and royal jelly (Δ
δ13Cp-r) should be higher than or equal to -0.95‰. Based on the above criteria, 65 royal jelly samples are confirmed adulterated with C-4 plant sugar in 131 commercial royal jelly samples. As a conclusion, the EA-IRMS method can effectively identify the exogenous C-4 plant sugar adulteration in royal jelly.