EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL POTENCY OF RAW HONEY ON WOUND PATHOGENS

Honey has been used in ancient times in management of various health conditions and has equally been rediscovered in recent times in wound treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the antibacterial potency of Honey on wound pathogens. The experimented honey was obtained from Eha-Alumona in Nsukka L.G.A and was tested for quality using the thumb test, water test and heat test. The physicochemical properties of the honey was analysed at National soil, plant, fertilizer and water laboratory in Umuahia where various methods such as spectronic method, automatic smart 3 colorimetric method and gravimetric oven drying method were used to obtain the values. Different concentration of honey 25-100% v/v were tested against each type of clinical isolates obtained from wound infection. A total of 80 bacterial isolates were collected from Federal Medical Centre Owerri among 100 subjects with a slant bottle. An antibiotic sensitivity test was done to all types of honey concentration using Agar Well diffusion method while minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration were determined for the most potent honey concentration by the broth dilution technique. All statistical analysis was performed using (ANOVA). The wound pathogens showed certain degrees of susceptibility to honey but the level of susceptibility is dependent on honey concentration and the bacteria in question. Among the three studies wound pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus was the most sensitive to honey at a zone diameter of 22.17mm. The MIC of honey on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 25%, 75% and 50% respectively while their MBC is 50%, 100% and 75% respectively. The experimented honey has both bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity, although result obtained from Ciprofloxacin used as control showed higher level of susceptibility on the tested bacteria than honey. Therefore, honey cannot be used to replace conventional antibiotics in tackling the problem of resistant bacteria pathogens, but should be used in line with conventional antibiotics as a suppository application.