## 4 Discussion
### Multifloral Honeys  
As expected, melissopalynological analysis showed a very complex composition of pollens in the multifloral honey samples (Figure 6). Most of the samples showed the presence of high percentages (>50%) of Ericaceae or Fagaceae pollens accompanied by lower percentages of Fabaceae (3-23%) or Rosaceae (4-25%), the latter being the most frequent in the multifloral samples (\(n=17\)). The presence of Asteraceae (3-12%) and Salicaceae (3-37%) pollens was also observed, together with Ranunculaceae (3-8%), Scrophulariaceae (3-23%), and Rubiaceae (3-8%). Apiaceae and Tiliaceae pollens were also observed in five  
Figure 4: Box and whisker plot of raffinose (**a**) and melezitose (**b**) in the honey samples. Same letters indicate statistically significant differences.  
and four samples, respectively. Regarding the chemical profile, no compounds appeared to be characteristic of this group due to the heterogeneity of these samples which determines a very different chemical composition with high intragroup standard deviations for most of the compounds.  
To try the identification of particular substances related to the pollen composition, all the samples (multifloral and monofloral) were subdivided in four groups depending on the prevalent class of the present pollens: Fagaceae group with a Fagaceae pollen frequency > 25% (AD45, AD43, M47-D, M47-P, M47-C, R2-18, C13-18, M44, C12-18, C18-18, C52-D, C52-P, C52-C, M23-18, A1-18, M7-18, M11-18, M9-18, C40, M6-18, M5-18); Ericaceae group with an Ericaceae pollen frequency > 25% (M36, M3-18, M16-18, R27-18, R17-18, R18-18, M21-18, M20-18, R14-18, R24-18, R4-18, M38, M37, M19-18, M42, M41, M39); Rosaceae group with a Rosaceae pollen frequency > 25% (AD-25, M22-18, A28-18). The last  
Figure 5: Box and whisker plot of nonanoic acid (**a**), nigerose (**b**), and furfural (**c**) in the honey samples. Same letters indicate statistically significant differences.  
Figure 6: Relative abundancies of pollen families in the multifocal honey samples.  
group included the samples in which no pollen family reached at least the frequency of 25% (f! 25 group) (M46-C, M46-P, M46-D). Statistical analysis was conducted on the four honey sample groups, considering only chemical data (sugars and VOCs), showing some interesting results. Particularly, fructose, erlose, and benzaldehyde showed significantly different values in the four groups (Figure 7a-c). Fructose demonstrated higher values in the group with the family pollen frequency lower than 25% than in the other groups (Figure 7a). This group had a contribution of various pollen families, particularly of Fagaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, and Scrophulariaceae, including numerous herbaceous species, which could determine higher levels of fructose. Erlose (Figure 7b) appeared to be significantly more common in the Ericaceae group, in agreement with what had already been highlighted for the rhododendron samples (Section 4.3), confirming the relationship of this compound with the pollen family of Ericaceae. Benzaldehyde (Figure 7c) showed a higher abundance in the Rosaceae group than in the others; this compound has, indeed, a correlation coefficient of 0.72 with the variable Rosaceae. Benzaldehyde is known to be abundant in seeds of Rosaceae family plants, especially in _Prunus dulcis_ sp.; in honey, it is generally associated with fresh honey odor, and it has been shown to diminish during honey storage [22; 57]. Interestingly, with this new classification, the role of benzaldehyde is clarified in comparison to the monolforal classification in which this compound appeared to be significant in the apple-dandelion samples. The classification based on the pollen family appeared effective in this case.