Abstract Monofloral honeys (such as, lavender honey) are highly appreciated by the consumers due to their flavour, taste and properties. However, since they are considered prime products, they are often targets of adulteration. This work exploits DNA barcoding combined with high resolution melting (HRM) analysis to establish the botanical origin of honey, using lavender honey as a case study. The plastidial matK gene was targeted as a candidate barcode for Lavandula species identification. The method allowed differentiating the species in three clusters with confidence levels >99%, being the results well correlated with the sequencing analysis. It was successfully applied to identify the botanical origin of several lavender honeys, which were grouped in the cluster of the most common species in Portugal (L. stoechas subsp., L. penduculata and L. viridis). The proposed method represents a simple, specific and cost-effective tool to authenticate the botanical origin of honey.

中文翻译：

---

通过结合高分辨率熔解分析的新型 DNA 条形码方法对薰衣草（薰衣草属）蜂蜜进行植物鉴定

摘要 单花蜂蜜（如薰衣草蜂蜜）因其风味、口感和特性而受到消费者的高度赞赏。然而，由于它们被认为是主要产品，它们通常是掺假的目标。这项工作利用 DNA 条形码与高分辨率熔解 (HRM) 分析相结合，以薰衣草蜂蜜作为案例研究来确定蜂蜜的植物来源。质体 matK 基因被定位为薰衣草物种鉴定的候选条形码。该方法允许区分三个集群中的物种，置信水平> 99%，结果与测序分析密切相关。它已成功应用于鉴定几种薰衣草蜂蜜的植物来源，这些蜂蜜被归入葡萄牙最常见的物种（L. stoechas subsp.、L. penduculata 和 L. 绿萝）。所提出的方法代表了一种简单、具体且具有成本效益的工具来验证蜂蜜的植物来源。