Consumption of antimicrobial manuka honey does not significantly perturb the microbiota in the hind gut of mice

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that consuming manuka honey, which contains antimicrobial methylglyoxal, may affect the gut microbiota. We undertook a mouse feeding study to investigate whether dietary manuka honey supplementation altered microbial numbers and their production of organic acid products from carbohydrate fermentation, which are markers of gut microbiota function. The caecum of C57BL/6 mice fed a diet supplemented with antimicrobial UMF R 20+ manuka honey at 2.2 g/kg animal did not show any significantly changed concentrations of microbial short chain fatty acids as measured by gas chromatography, except for increased formate and lowered succinate organic acid concentrations, compared to mice fed a control diet. There was no change in succinate-producing Bacteroidetes numbers, or honey-utilising Bifidobacteria, nor any other microbes measured by real time quantitative PCR. These results suggest that, despite the antimicrobial activity of the original honey, consumption of manuka honey only mildly affects substrate metabolism by the gut microbiota.

Body-size Scaling is Related to Gut Microbial Diversity, Metabolism and Dietary Niche of Arboreal Folivorous Flying Squirrels

“…In addition, as mentioned above, our metagenome prediction was consistent with previous studies that amino acid biosynthesis genes are the most abundant orthologues in herbivorous mammalian gut microbiota 18,73,78 . However, herbivorous diets may provide limited protein intakes and incomplete essential amino acid composition.…”

“…In previous studies, gut microbiota of two folivorous mammals (Yunnan Snub-Nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus bieti, foregut fermenter and Petaurista alborufus lena, hindgut fermenter) were enriched with carbohydrate metabolic pathway genes, the second most abundant orthologues after those involved in protein/amino acid metabolism 73,78 . With a high diversity of glycoside hydrolases (GHs), folivores can degrade a variety of lignocellulosic biomass from leaf-based diets.…”

“…With a high diversity of glycoside hydrolases (GHs), folivores can degrade a variety of lignocellulosic biomass from leaf-based diets. Valid microbes harbored in Rhinopithecus bieti were phyla Bacteroidetes (Bacteroides vulgates, and B. fragilis), Fibrobacteres (Fibrobacter succinogenes), and Spirochaetes, whereas P. alborufus lena had predominately Firmicutes 73,78 .…”

Detrimental effect on the gut microbiota of 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds after in vitro gastro-intestinal and fermentative digestion

“…This effect was considered particularly advantageous because, in proportion to the increasing number of positive bacteria, the number of potentially pathogenic microorganisms in the intestine decreased (Rosendale et al, 2008). Rosendale et al (2016) also affirmed that consumption of Manuka honey, which contains antimicrobial MGO, does not significantly perturb the microbiota in the hindgut of mice, but instead resulted in the production of beneficial microbial metabolites, in particular, short-chain fatty acids.…”

Oral administration of Manuka honey modulates gut microbiota composition and enhances anti-tumor immunity in a preclinical model of colorectal cancer

“…MH was shown to improve the growth of probiotic bacteria while inhibiting the growth of pathogens [55]. Animal studies have shown that oral administration of 2.2g/kg (44 mg/mouse) of MH to mice for 4 weeks leads to alterations in the concentrations of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) [56]. In a clinical study, the consumption of 20g of MH daily for 12 weeks did not yield any signi cant changes in gut microbiota.…”