Antibacterial effects of Apis mellifera and stingless bees honeys on susceptible and resistant strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundHoney is a natural substance produced by honeybees and has nutritional and therapeutic uses. In Ethiopia, honeys are used traditionally to treat wounds, respiratory infections and diarrhoea. Recent increase of drug resistant bacteria against the existing antibiotics forced investigators to search for alternative natural remedies and evaluate their potential use on scientific bases. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial effects of different types of honeys in Ethiopia which are used traditionally to treat different types of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections.MethodsMueller Hinton agar (70191) diffusion and nutrient broth culture medium assays were performed to determine susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and resistant clinical isolates (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA), Escherichia coli(R) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (R), using honeys of Apis mellifera and stingless bees in northern and north western Ethiopia.ResultsHoney of the stingless bees produced the highest mean inhibition (22.27 ± 3.79 mm) compared to white honey (21.0 ± 2.7 mm) and yellow honey (18.0 ± 2.3 mm) at 50% (v/v) concentration on all the standard and resistant strains. Stingless bees honey was found to have Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of 6.25% (6.25 mg/ml) for 80% of the test organisms compared to 40% for white and yellow Apis mellifera honeys. All the honeys were found to have minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 12.5% (12.5 mg/ml) against all the test organisms. Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) was susceptible to amoxicillin, methicillin, kanamycine, tetracycline, and vancomycine standard antibiotic discs used for susceptibility tests. Similarly, Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) was found susceptible for kanamycine, tetracycline and vancomycine. Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) has not been tested for amoxicillin ampicillin and methicillin. The susceptibility tests performed against Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli (R) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (R) using three of methicillin, erythromycin, ampicillin, Penicillin and amoxicillin discs were resistant. But, these drug resistant strains were susceptible to antibacterial agents found in the honeys and inhibited from 16 mm to 20.33 mm.ConclusionsHoneys in Ethiopia can be used as therapeutic agents for drug resistant bacteria after pharmaceutical standardization and clinical trials.

Prolonged heating of honey increases its antioxidant potential but decreases its antimicrobial activity

“…Indeed, the growth of a wide range of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses has been reported to be effectively inhibited by honey (Molan, 2006). Previous studies have reported potent antimicrobial activities of honey against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Shigella flexneri, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus (Andualem, 2013;Ewnetu, 2013;Mandal, 2011;Tan, 2009). In this study, we investigated the effects of heat on the antibacterial properties of honey against nine bacterial species: one Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and eight Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi A, Shigella dysenteriae, Chromobacterium violaceum and Vibrio cholerae).…”

Antibacterial properties and healing effects of Melipona scutellaris honey in MRSA-infected wounds of rats

“…Studies have pointed that honey is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 8,9 .…”

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“…Cytotoxicity studies of stingless bee honey broad spectrum antibacterial activity because honey can act against a wide range of bacteria that able to cause disease (Boorn et al, 2010;. Most of the studies of honey were performed on Staphylococcus aureus (Miorin et al, 2003;Demera et al, 2004;Temaru et al, 2007;Chanchao et al, 2009;Boorn et al, 2010;Chan-Rodriguez et al, 2012;Ilechie et al, 2012;Andualem et al, 2013;Ewnetu et al, 2013;Merces et al, 2013;Queiroz et al, 2013;Zainol et al, 2013;Nobre da Cruz et al, 2014;Massaro et al, 2014;Zamora et al, 2014) showed that it is the most susceptible tested pathogen to stingless bee honey. As we know, Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen found in human skin and can cause infection in the presence of a wound.…”

“…Previous study showed that stingless bee honey can act as anti-inflammatory (Borsato et al, 2014), anticancer (Kustiawan et al, 2014;Yazan et al, 2016), antimicrobial (Miorin et al, 2003;Demera et al, 2004;Garedew et al, 2004;Temaru et al, 2007;Kimoto-Nira and Amano, 2008;Chanchao et al, 2009;Boorn et al, 2010;Rodríguez et al, 2012;Ilechie et al, 2012;Andualem, 2013;Ewnetu et al, 2013;Mercês et al, 2013;Queiroz et al, 2013;Zainol et al, 2013;Nobre da Cruz et al, 2014;Massaro et al, 2014;Zamora et al, 2014;Medeiros et al, 2016;De Sousa et al, 2016; and possessed antioxidant properties (Duarte et al, 2012;Almeida da Silva et al, 2013;De Sousa et al, 2016). However, the beneficial of stingless bee honey has been abandoned in modern medicine due to the paucity of systematic scientific studies for supporting its medical properties (Pe´rez et al, 2006).…”