Farhan Essaa Abdullah, Kiran Afab, Rabia Khanum, Sidrah Sohail Khan.
Antibacterial activity of honey against bacteria isolated from respiratory tract infections.
J Dow Uni Health Sci Jan ;6(3):95-9.

Objective: This study aims to verify any antibacterial activity of honey against bacteria concerned with Respiratory Tract Infections in Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: Three brands of commercial honey, one ‘crude’ and two ‘processed’ were used to determine their antibacterial activity against four bacterial species, Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=56), Pneumococci (n=34), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=16), and Staphylococcus aureus (n=20), isolated from Sputum and Throat swab specimens. The ‘cork-bore method’ was employed using Mueller-Hinton agar , and the inhibition zones around the wells containing 20%w/v honey solutions were assessed using Imipenem disc (30ug) as the standard of antibacterial activity. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Results: Significant antibacterial activity of honey was observed against the 4 RTI isolates, with higher sensitivities for ProcS (Salman’s Honey) and Crude sample. The Crude sample yielded relatively superior inhibition zones than the other two specimens; it affected all 34 (100%) of Pneumococci, 29 of 56 (52%) Klebsiellae, 14 of 20 (70%) Staphylococci and 4 of 16 (25%) Pseudomonas isolates. Pneumococci were significantly more sensitive to all 3 honey specimens, while pseudomonas were least sensitive compared to other isolates. Conclusion: Samples of honey showed promising in vitro antibacterial activity on some RTI isolates.

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