REVIEW Chemical composition and biological properties of aromatic compounds in honey: An overview Mohammad Mijanur Rahman 1 | Md. Nur Alam 2 | Nusrat Fatima 1 | Hussain Md. Shahjalal 1 | Siew Hua Gan 3 | Md. Ibrahim Khalil 1,3 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Preventive and Integrative Biomedicine, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh 2 Scientific Officer, Columbia University Arsenic and Health Research Project, (NIEHS, USA Superfund Research Program), Araihazar, Narayangong, Dhaka, Bangladesh 3 Human Genome Centre, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia Correspondence Md. Ibrahim Khalil, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Preventive and Integrative Biomedicine, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh. Email: drmikhalil@gmail.com Abstract The aromatic volatile organic compounds present in honey is important since they contribute toward organoleptic characteristics, identity, and quality of honey. A good number of scientific data and information from some literatures corroborate bioactivity with toxicity of volatile organic compounds present in honey. Nevertheless, systematic scientific study of honey aromatic com- pounds is an overlooked issue unlike investigation on other bioactive compounds of honey. Reports on comprehensive profiling of honey aromatic compound, bioactivity screening, toxicolog- ical evaluation, medicinal values for a particular disease condition as well as database development could be some of the future research scope with honey aromatic compounds. In this article, reports on aromatic compound in honey and their implications in terms of physiochemical charac- teristics, origin tracking, quality, physiological, and toxicological effects are compiled. It is hoped that this article exhort the scientific community to conduct more rational scientific studies on honey aromatic compounds which is not well-explored in depth. Practical applications Honey containing active compounds like volatile aromatic compounds contributes to the aroma profile of honey whereas the composition and quality of honey depends appreciably with their botanical and geographical derivation. It is evident that differential properties were found in honey from different origin varying aromatic compound composition. As a result, priority can be given in making inquiries to the aromatic compound in the context of contemporary medicinal research of honey. In addition, aromatic honey possesses both the health reimbursements and unwanted toxi- cological effects. Although, it is reported that as a novel food honey exerts some stunning biological effects, its constituents may undergo various notorious metabolic conversion that would be life threatening. KEYWORDS aromatic compounds, honey, honey quality, physiochemical properties 1 | INTRODUCTION Honey is a natural sweetener produced from nectar of flowers by hon- eybees (Apis mellifera; Family: Apidae). It is generally accepted that honey has been used from the prehistoric time by human society. Trac- ing of the history demonstrates that, human started using honey about 8,000 years ago. Different community used honey in distinct purpose (Pearce, 2015). Researchers around the world have reported the anti- bacterial, antifungal, cytostatic, wound healing, antitumor, and anti- inflammatory properties of honeybee products (Afroz, Tanvir, Zheng, & Little, 2016; Devasvaran & Yong, 2016; Elnakady et al., 2017; Khorasani, Jarrahi, & Jarrahi, 2016; Mcloone, Oluwadun, Warnock, & Fyfe, 2016; Meo, Al-Asiri, Mahesar, & Ansari, 2017; Pasupuleti, Sammugam, Ramesh, & Hua, 2017; Takzaree, Hadjiakhondi, Hassanzadeh, Rouini, & Manayi, 2016). The ancient Assyrians and Chinese used honey for wounds, skin diseases, and cataract. In Egypt, honey was offered to gods, besides using it as balm for wounds. Honey has antique use as sweetener in unfermented grape juice beverage. The honey also used as one of J Food Biochem. 2017;e12405. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfbc.12405 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfbc V C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1 of 11 Received: 25 February 2017 | Revised: 30 May 2017 | Accepted: 6 July 2017 DOI: 10.1111/jfbc.12405