A Comparative Study on Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activity of Honey at Different Processing Stages

Abstract

In present study, the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of mixed floral honey has been evaluated at different processing stages, like unprocessed, filtered and processed. The antibacterial activity was evaluated against human pathogens namely, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae. All the three honey varieties exhibited potential antibacterial activity against all the strains, except E. coli. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the honey samples against pathogens varied significantly. The MIC of unprocessed, filtered and processed honey were found to be 6.25, 25 and 50 % (v/v) respectively against the tested strains. The antioxidant activity of mixed floral honey samples ranged from 70.86 to 90.00 %. The study shows that unprocessed honey has higher antibacterial and antioxidant property than the processed samples, and thus significant loss takes place during processing of honey.