RESEARCH ARTICLE
Comparison of Effectiveness of Germania Honey Compared to Manuka Honey in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Killing
Ali M. Bazzi1, *, Ali A. Rabaan2, Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq3, Bilal M. Shannak1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 13
First Page: 21
Last Page: 27
Publisher ID: TOMICROJ-13-21
DOI: 10.2174/1874285801913010021
Article History:
Received Date: 1/11/2018Revision Received Date: 20/01/2019
Acceptance Date: 26/01/2019
Electronic publication date: 31/01/2019
Collection year: 2019
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Purpose:
Manuka honey is currently used in medical-grade sterile wound treatment products and has been shown to be effective in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) killing in vitro and in wound healing in a number of case studies and series. Locally produced honey in Pakistan and Chile have been proposed to be as effective as Manuka honey in bacterial killing in vitro, presenting potentially more accessible and affordable alternatives. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of a local Germania honey from Saudi Arabia to Manuka honey MGO 550 for in vitro killing of MRSA.
Methodology:
Overnight Muller Hinton broth cultures of 50 wound culture isolates of MRSA from 50 patients were incubated with a series of dilutions of Manuka honey MGO 550 and corresponding Germania honey dilutions for 24 h. Turbidity was assessed to determine whether bacterial growth had occurred, and no growth was confirmed by a further 24 h sub-culture on blood agar.
Results/Key findings:
Manuka honey MGO 550 was significantly more effective than Germania honey at MRSA killing at 100% v/v, 50% v/v and 25% v/v (p=0.025, 0.000265, and 0.000112 respectively)
Conclusion:
Manuka honey MGO 550 is significantly more effective in killing MRSA in vitro than Germania honey. Germania honey does not appear to be a promising locally produced alternative to Manuka honey for the development of honey-based wound dressings. Further experiments could determine if Germania honey is effective against other bacterial species.
