A comparison of the sensitivity of wound‐infecting species of bacteria to the antibacterial activity of manuka honey and other honey

Abstract

Both honey and sugar are used with good effect as dressings for wounds and ulcers. The good control of infection is attributed to the high osmolarity, but honey can have additional antibacterial activity because of its content of hydrogen peroxide and unidentified substances from certain floral sources. Manuka honey is known to have a high level of the latter. Seven major wound-infecting species of bacteria were studied to compare their sensitivity to the non-peroxide antibacterial activity of manuka honey and to a honey in which the antibacterial activity was primarily due to hydrogen peroxide. Honeys with activity in the middle of the normal range were used. A comparison of the median response of the various species of bacteria showed no significant difference between the two types of activity overall, but marked differences between the two types of activity in the rank order of sensitivity of the seven bacterial species. The non-peroxide antibacterial activity of manuka honey at a honey concentration of 1.8% (v/v) completely inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus during incubation for 8 h. The growth of all seven species was completely inhibited by both types of honey at concentrations below 11% (v/v).

Antimicrobial activity of Algerian honey on subclinical mastitis pathogens isolated from goat's milk

“…The authors thank factors including the osmotic effect of honey [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], Dr. Harrats Ch. (University of Oran, Algeria) for the the presence of hydrogen peroxide, non peroxide English correction.…”

Honey: Antimicrobial Actions and Role in Disease Management

“…Conifer honeydew honey, with exceptionally high activity, was reported to contain a heatstable as well as a heat-sensitive antibacterial factor [50J. More direct evidence for the existence of antibacterial factors additional to hydrogen peroxide is seen in reports of activity persisting in honeys treated with catalase to remove the hydrogen peroxide activity [57,59,72,[78][79][80][81][82]. In one of these studies where substantial antibacterial activity remained it was shown by direct assay of the level of hydrogen peroxide present that the catalase had been completely effective [59J.…”

Medical Dressing Treated with Honey/Chitosan Microencapsules

“…Anti-bacterial effect of honey is explained through osmotic effect of its high sugar content, hydrogen peroxide activity (Molan, 1992), additional non-peroxide anti-bacterial factors (Allen, 1991) and low pH, which prevents growth of many organisms. Apart from all these, honey shows immune-stimulant activity by stimulating the mutagenesis of human T-and Blymphocytes and by activating the neutrophils (Abuharfeil, 1999).…”

“…It has been used topically in the ethno-medicine of the Indian subcontinent since 2500 B.C., and also by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans (Ransome, 1987;Gunther, 1959;Zumla, 1989;Molan, 1992;White, 1975;Taormina et al, 2001;Allen, 1991). The most remarkable discovery was the antibacterial activity of honey (Zumla, 1989;Efem et al, 1992;Cooper, 1992;Willix et al, 1992).…”