LAUSR

Abstract Honey is a bee product that plays an important role in human diet. Its beneficial health properties are widely known. Honey is a substance of complex composition. One of many groups of naturally occurring compounds in honey are organic acids, among them formic, oxalic and lactic acids, exhibiting impact to varroosis – parasitic bee disease when occur at the excess. Therefore, such acids are used by beekeepers as natural medicines against varroa mites. Improper apiarian practice can increase the content of acids in honey and deteriorate its quality. The problem of the occurrence of elevated levels of formic acid in bee honey is discussed. Formic acid exhibits particularly high efficacy to kill the varroa mites and is often used in apicultural practice. The applicability of ion chromatography with conductivity detection to the determination of formic acid in bee honey was investigated. Rapid and selective method, using anionic Dionex IonPac AS9−HC column and 9.0 mmol/L Na2CO3 as the eluent, is presented. Formic acid concentrations in the analyzed samples of six commercially available Polish bee honeys of different origin range from 20.09 ± 2.62 mg/kg in acacia honey up to 248.58 ± 2.62 mg/kg in buckwheat honey.