Research Article Analyses of Mineral Content and Heavy Metal of Honey Samples from South and East Region of Turkey by Using ICP-MS Serap KJlJç Altun, 1 Hikmet Dinç, 2 Nilgün Paksoy, 3 Füsun Karaçal TemamoLullarJ, 2 and Mehmet Savrunlu 4 1 Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Harran University, 63000 S ¸anlıurfa, Turkey 2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Harran University, 63000 S ¸anlıurfa, Turkey 3 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Harran University, 63000 S ¸anlıurfa, Turkey 4 Province Control Laboratory, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock, 63000 S ¸anlıurfa, Turkey Correspondence should be addressed to Serap Kılıc ¸ Altun; vetserapaltun@hotmail.com Received 22 December 2016; Revised 31 March 2017; Accepted 19 April 2017; Published 11 May 2017 Academic Editor: G¨ unther K. Bonn Copyright © 2017 Serap Kılıc ¸ Altun et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te substantial of mineral ingredients in honey may symbolize the existence of elements in the plants and soil of the vicinity wherein the honey was taken. Te aim of this study was to detect the levels of 13 elements (Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni), Chromium (Cr), Aluminum (Al), and Selenium (Se)) in uniforal and multiforal honey samples from south and east regions of Turkey. Survey of 71 honey samples from seven diferent herbal origins, picked up from the south and east region of Turkey, was carried out to determine their mineral contents during 2015-2016. Te mineral contents were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Te most abundant minerals were K, Na, and Ca ranging within 1.18–268 ppm, 0.57–13.1 ppm, and 0.77–4.5 ppm, respectively. Zn and Cu were the most abundant trace element while Pb, Cd, Ni, and Cr were the lowest heavy metals in the honey samples surveyed, with regard to the concentrations of heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd, Ni, and Cr suggested and infuence of the botanical origin of element composition. Geochemical and geographical diferences are probably related to the variations of the chemical components of honey samples. 1. Introduction Bees produce honey from the pollen and nectar which visit fowers, other plants, and honeydew. Honey is a kind of natural mellifuous nutrient produced from nectar and pollen grains or from secretion of living plant parts that the Apis mellifera bees collect [1]. Bees make honey to behave as a nutrient reservoir for the colony for hard times when the climate is adverse and there are no fowers [2]. Te Codex Alimentarius [3] defnes honey as follows: “Honey is the natural sweet substance, produced by honey- bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants, or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specifc substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature.” Honey has a superior nutritional value and it is a com- position of carbohydrates such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, and other polysaccharides and oligosaccharides as well as acids, favonoids, vitamins, minerals, waxes, aroma compounds, pollen grains, pigments, and enzymes [4, 5]. Te composition depends on the composition of nectar and honeydews [4]. Honey also contains a variety of macro- and microminerals that are the minor constituents of honey present in the range 0.02–1.03%. Trace elements are mainly the ash content of honey [2]. Elements are inorganic com- pounds which have to exist in the human body for vital activities. Elements such as Se, Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, and Zn are essential for normal metabolism [6] but above tolerance Hindawi International Journal of Analytical Chemistry Volume 2017, Article ID 6391454, 6 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6391454