Abstract
The Sierra Madre Mountains, which happen to be the longest mountain range in the Philippines, is home to lush floral and faunal species as well as forest-based indigenous communities actively involved in preserving local biodiversity. With active reforestation efforts ongoing for decades, the locals are further encouraged to continue their long-standing practice of honey gathering as a form of cultural manifestation and as an important source of livelihood. To further inspire ongoing conservation efforts, we aim to show that the small molecule diversity in Sierra Madre forest honey reflects the local floral composition and is reflective of the positive impact of previous reforestation initiatives. In order to do this, liquid chromatography—mass spectrometry (LC–MS) based metabolomics was used to profile and compare metabolite diversity in honey produced by Apis cerana, Apis breviligula Maa. and Tetragonula biroi (Friese) honey from Palaui Island and Laiban in Northern and Southern Sierra Madre, respectively. Surprisingly, the Philippine National Tree and unfortunately endangered Pterocarpus indicus Willd (loc. Narra) proved to be important, especially in Palaui Island where honey from A. cerana is close to being monofloral. Aside from P. indicus and its small molecule marker hypaphorine, caffeine was detected in Palaui honey beautifully reflecting the way of life of native Agtas who manage a small coffee plantation. The abundance of caffeine, however, is higher in stingless honey samples from Tanay, Rizal where Coffea trees have been extensively included in restoration activities over the past few decades. Our results imply the possibility of using honey as an ecological monitoring tool while generating baseline chemical information that reflects the state of Philippine forests. Furthermore, the identification of unique chemical components in forest honey can be further used in programs that assist indigenous communities in safeguarding the ownership and origin of forest honey sources.
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Data availability
All metabolomics data acquired using LC–MS and processed under the GNPS pipeline is stored as a public dataset under MassIVE (massive.ucsd.edu, MSV000093476). Meanwhile, Genomic results are stored in the Genbank Repository (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) with accession codes described correspondingly for PAL_ACer2-ITS1a (OR768480), PAL_ACer1-ITS1a (OR768481), PAL_ACer2-ITS1b (OR768482), PAL_St-ITS1b (OR768483), PAL_ACer2-rbcL (OR778587), PAL_St-rbcL (OR778588), and PAL_ACer1-rbcL (OR778589).
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Forest Foundation Philippines for the Dr. Perry S. Ong Fellowship Program (2021-13) received by the researchers that enabled the funding of the research work. Special regards to Ms. Diane Begui for coordinating the administrative side of the project and providing important feedback. Sampling in Palaui Island and coordination to the Agta community was coordinated by Ma’am Mikaela Tess Gatan–Balbas and staff of Mabuwaya Foundation. Similarly, honey gathering in Tanay, Rizal was spearheaded by Mr. Jude Estrellado of the Empowered Laiban Community Producers Cooperative (ELCPC). We also would like to thank Professor Emeritus Cleofas Cervancia of the University of the Philippines—Los Baños for suggesting the group to do palynology analysis under Dr. Fajardo. All mass spectrometry analysis done in the study is carried out at the Mass Spectrometry Facility of the University of the Philippines Diliman funded by the PCHRD-DDHP of the DOST. In the same light, the authors would like to acknowledge the support of Dr. Eizadora T. Yu, Associate Dean of the University of the Philippines Diliman—College of Science, from the conception of the research up to its culmination.
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R.J.E.M., K.F.R., V.T., H.J., M.V.W., L. Parunga, and L.P. were involved in the conceptualization of the research work. M.V.W. and L.P. coordinated the sampling in Palaui Island and Tanay, Rizal, respectively. R.J.E.M., K.F.R., V.T performed the metabolomics experiments and data analysis. M.M. & D.M.S. carried out DNA barcoding while A.M.F. provided pollen morphometrics data.
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Molino, R.J.E.J., Van Weerd, M., Torreno, V.P.M. et al. Multi-omics and palynology of selected Philippine forest honey. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-71385-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-71385-4
