Antibacterial properties of honey from Malaysian Stingless Bee

Mohd Hilmi, Abu Bakar (2016) Antibacterial properties of honey from Malaysian Stingless Bee. In: The International Scientific Conference (iNASCON) 2016, 16-17 May 2016, Kota Bharu.

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Abstract

Introduction: Stingless bee honey or known as madu kelulut has significant contribution in antimicrobial activity. Naturally, bees from the genus Apis forage on one floral source thus producing monofloral honey. Most honey are monofloral and named according to their respective plant species. Manuka honey the well-known New Zealand medical-grade honey is named in respect to the Manuka tree, Leptospermum scoparium. Contrarily, bees from the genus Trigona or known as stingless honey bees forage on diverse floral sources to produce polyfloral or multifloral honey, and thus to name the honey according to a tree species is not applicable. Therefore, honey produced multiflorally is named according to the forager bee species such as Trigona itama honey or Trigona thoracica honey. Nevertheless, the efficacy of monofloral and multifloral honey on the treatment of human diseases and to claim which honey is superior to another is still under investigation. Objective: To explore the efficacy of Malaysian stingless bee honey. Methodology: Stingless bee honey and non-stingless bee honey were used to compare the antibacterial activities against pathogenic bacteria. Results: For the first time, the study has shown that stingless bee honey (madu kelulut) has higher antibacterial activities compared to non-stingless bee honey (madu tualang). The finding is supported by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Similarly, agar well diffusion method demonstrated that the zone of inhibition on the culture plate of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes is higher after treatment using stingless bee honey compared to non-stingless bee honey. In addition, stingless bee honey contained crucial bioactive compound for the therapy of human diseases. Conclusion: Malaysian stingless bee honey has crucial antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

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