European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF HONEY AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGENS

Subhankari Prasad Chakraborty*

ABSTRACT

Objective: The present study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial activity of Indian natural honey at different concentrations (5%v/v, 10%v/v, 20%v/v, 25%v/v, 50%v/v and 100%v/v) against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Methods: Six multi-drug resistant pathogenic S. aureus and E. coli strains were selected for this study. Antimicrobial susceptibility of these isolates to different concentrations of honey was determined by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), cell viability assay and biofilm formation assay. Results: Results shows that Natural honey exhibited antibacterial activity, where as commercial honey, a well known non-antimicrobial agent does not reveal so. For multi-drug resistant S. aureus and E. coli strains, the MIC concentrations of Natural honey were 50%v/v and 25%v/v, respectively, and the MBC concentrations was 50%v/v. Natural honey significantly decreases (P<0.05) the cell viability and biofilm formation of multi-drug resistant S. aureus and E. coli strains by 32.88%, 21.27% and 32.98%, 27.27%, respectively. Conclusion: Natural honey may contain compounds with therapeutic potential against our local isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, multi-drug resistant bacteria, folk medicine, honey, antimicrobial activity.