Two Major Medicinal Honeys Have Different Mechanisms of Bactericidal Activity
Open Access
- 4 March 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 6 (3), e17709
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017709
Abstract
Honey is increasingly valued for its antibacterial activity, but knowledge regarding the mechanism of action is still incomplete. We assessed the bactericidal activity and mechanism of action of Revamil® source (RS) honey and manuka honey, the sources of two major medical-grade honeys. RS honey killed Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa within 2 hours, whereas manuka honey had such rapid activity only against B. subtilis. After 24 hours of incubation, both honeys killed all tested bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but manuka honey retained activity up to higher dilutions than RS honey. Bee defensin-1 and H2O2 were the major factors involved in rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey. These factors were absent in manuka honey, but this honey contained 44-fold higher concentrations of methylglyoxal than RS honey. Methylglyoxal was a major bactericidal factor in manuka honey, but after neutralization of this compound manuka honey retained bactericidal activity due to several unknown factors. RS and manuka honey have highly distinct compositions of bactericidal factors, resulting in large differences in bactericidal activity.Keywords
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Methylglyoxal—A Potential Risk Factor of Manuka Honey in Healing of Diabetic UlcersEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2011
- How honey kills bacteriaThe FASEB Journal, 2010
- Antibiotics for Emerging PathogensScience, 2009
- Medical‐Grade Honey Kills Antibiotic‐Resistant Bacteria In Vitro and Eradicates Skin ColonizationClinical Infectious Diseases, 2008
- Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in pigs and pig farmersVeterinary Microbiology, 2008
- The tandem of free radicals and methylglyoxalChemico-Biological Interactions, 2008
- The Effect of Dilution on the Rate of Hydrogen Peroxide Production in Honey and Its Implications for Wound HealingThe Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2003
- Interaction of human defensins with Escherichia coli. Mechanism of bactericidal activity.JCI Insight, 1989
- Studies on Honey Inhibine. 4. Destruction of the Peroxide Accumulation System by LightJournal of Food Science, 1964
- The identification of inhibine, the antibacterial factor in honey, as hydrogen peroxide and its origin in a honey glucose-oxidase systemBiochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Specialized Section on Enzymological Subjects, 1963