Antimicrobial Effect of Different Types of Honey on Selected ATCC Bacterial Strains

Abstract

Honey is a complex sweet highly viscous liquid and is composed of various ingredients such as sugar, proteins, minerals, and polyphenolic compounds. Honey is used in traditional medicine systems for centuries because of its ability to inhibit the pathogenesis of various diseases through modulating various biological activities. In this study, antimicrobial potential of different types of honey was tested against selected pathogenic bacterial strains through agar well diffusion method. Four types of honey were used in the present investigation, and the potential antimicrobial activities of these varieties were further compared with that of antibiotics commonly used against targeted microbial strains. Among all of the four tested honey, three types were classified as blossom honey, being Talha (Acacia sp) honey (TH), Zahoor (mixed flower) honey (ZH), and Manuka (Leptospermum based honey) honey (MH). Both gram positive and gram negative bacterial species were used for this investigation. The pathogenic gram-positive bacterial strains included Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) ATCC 43300. Three gram negative bacteria like Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Klebsiella pneumonia ATCC 700603, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 were also used to confirm the antimicrobial activities. As reflected from our study, we found that three varieties of honey including TH, ZH, and MH (with different UMF +20, +16, +5) displayed a broad spectrum antibacterial activity against all tested microbial strains. However, all strains showed a high frequency of resistance to BF honey. Gram-positive (G+) bacteria were found to be more sensitive to all tested honey types except (BF) as indicated by significantly higher zone of inhibition (ZOI) values than those of gram-negative (G-) bacteria. As a conclusion, this study suggests that antimicrobial potential of honey types might be helpful in order to treat the pathogenic microorganisms threatening the public health and changing antibiotics into last-resort drugs. Key Words: Talha honey, Zahoor honey and Manuka honey, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis