title: Antibacterial activity of selected Malaysian honey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antibacterial activity of honey is mainly dependent on a combination of its peroxide activity and non-peroxide components. This study aims to investigate antibacterial activity of five varieties of Malaysian honey (three monofloral; acacia, gelam and pineapple, and two polyfloral; kelulut and tualang) against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) were performed for semi-quantitative evaluation. Agar well diffusion assay was used to investigate peroxide and non-peroxide activities of honey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that gelam honey possessed lowest MIC value against S. aureus with 5% (w/v) MIC and MBC of 6.25% (w/v). Highest MIC values were shown by pineapple honey against E. coli and P. aeruginosa as well as acacia honey against E. coli with 25% (w/v) MIC and 50% (w/v) MBC values. Agar inhibition assay showed kelulut honey to possess highest total antibacterial activity against S. aureus with 26.49 equivalent phenol concentrations (EPC) and non-peroxide activity of 25.74 EPC. Lowest antibacterial activity was observed in acacia honey against E. coli with total activity of 7.85 EPC and non-peroxide activity of 7.59 EPC. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) between the total antibacterial activities and non-peroxide activities of Malaysian honey. The intraspecific correlation between MIC and EPC of E. coli (r = -0.8559) was high while that between MIC and EPC of P. aeruginosa was observed to be moderate (r = -0.6469). S. aureus recorded a smaller correlation towards the opposite direction (r = 0.5045). In contrast, B.cereus showed a very low intraspecific correlation between MIC and EPC (r = -0.1482).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Malaysian honey, namely gelam, kelulut and tualang, have high antibacterial potency derived from total and non-peroxide activities, which implies that both peroxide and other constituents are mutually important as contributing factors to the antibacterial property of honey.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. mohdizwan3rd@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mohd Izwan
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Zainol
authors.forename: Kamaruddin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mohd Yusoff
authors.forename: Mohd Yasim
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Mohd Yusof
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000032:analysis / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D001516:Bees; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis*; D008296:Malaysia; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents