VALORIZATION OF BRAZILIAN CAATINGA HONEY AS A BREWING ADJUNCT: IMPACT ON PHENOLIC PROFILE AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL

Beer is a widely accepted beverage, and the use of adjuncts serves as a strategy to incorporate bioactive compounds. In this context, honeys from the Caatinga biome stand out as sources of compounds associated with the region's flora, offering the potential to enhance the beer's phytochemical and functional profile. The objective was to evaluate the influence of adding different floral honeys from the Caatinga on the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of beers. Three honeys were used, with floral origins confirmed via melissopalynology and color determined by the Pfund scale: jurema-preta monofloral (amber) and two polyfloral varieties (extra-white and amber). The beers were produced using a blend of malts (Pilsner, Wheat, Château Arome, Biscuit) (220g/L), hops (0.55g/L), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (0.5g/L), following mashing, filtration, boiling, cooling, and fermentation (19°C) stages. Honey was incorporated during fermentation (50g/L), resulting in four treatments: control (CC), jurema-preta (CJ), extra-white polyfloral (CPE), and amber polyfloral (CPA). Analyses included total phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, antioxidant activity (via DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays), and phenolic profiling via HPLC-DAD. Data were subjected to ANOVA (Tukey test), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and heatmap visualization. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents did not differ among samples (p>0.05), whereas CJ and CPA exhibited higher tannin levels (mean of 53 mg/100mL; p<0.05); this indicates that darker-colored honeys resulted in higher concentrations of these compounds in the beer, which can influence the perception of bitterness and astringency. Although total phenolic content did not differ statistically, the phenolic profile varied according to the honey: CC showed higher concentrations of gallic acid and epigallocatechin gallate; CJ, of vanillic acid, hesperidin, and procyanidin B1; CPE was associated with syringic and p-coumaric acids; and CPA, with catechin, epicatechin, and hydroxybenzoic acids. Gallic acid was the predominant compound, with the highest concentration in CC (67mg/L) and the lowest in CPE (53mg/L). These differences demonstrate that floral honeys can modify the beer's phenolic profile through the contribution of their constituents or transformations resulting from microbial activity. CJ exhibited the highest antioxidant potential in all assays, while CPA showed the lowest DPPH and FRAP values, demonstrating that a higher tannin concentration does not necessarily imply higher antioxidant activity, which depends on the composition, structure, and reactivity of the phenolics present. Antioxidant activity indicates the compounds' capacity to act on reactive species associated with oxidative stress, suggesting bioactive potential. PCA explained 80.49% of the variance (F1= 47.34%; F2= 33.15%), differentiating samples based on phenolic and antioxidant profiles and highlighting greater similarity among beers made with polyfloral honeys, regardless of color. It’s concluded that the floral origin of the honey modulates the phenolic profile and antioxidant activity of the beers, highlighting jurema-preta as a promising source of bioactive compounds to enhance the beverage's functionality.