TITLE:
Antimicrobial Effect of Honey from the Arabian Gulf Region against Bacterial Isolates from Pus and Wound Swabs
AUTHORS:
Nihar Dash, Debadatta Panigrahi, Mansour Al-Zarouni
KEYWORDS:
Honey, Provenance, Antibacterial Activity, UAE
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.6 No.10,
August
26,
2016
ABSTRACT: Of the many beneficial effects attributed to honey,
its antimicrobial properties have drawn considerable interest. Five types of
natural honey originating from three countries but available in the local
markets in UAE were randomly selected. The antibacterial activity of the honey
types was tested against bacterial reference strains as well as 21 bacterial
isolates obtained from pus and wound swabs from patients. All the five types of
honey showed antibacterial activity, however, there were differences in the
antibacterial efficacy of the different honey types. All the strains of Staphylococcus
aureus (reference, clinical and methicillin-resistant) exhibited better
susceptibilities contrast to the gram-negative isolates including Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa when tested
against all different honey types. The findings from this study indicate that
the antibacterial activity of locally available honey varies depending on their
provenance. Further work is needed to identify factors which determine the antimicrobial
efficacy of these different honey types. Their antibacterial activity can be
explored for the treatment of wound infections in patients.