Antibacterial activity of polyphenol-rich extract of selected wild honey collected in Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

Four types of Sabah wild honey produced by bee species native to Sabah; namely Apis cerana, Apis andreniformis, Apis nuluensis and Apis koschevnikovi were collected from January to April 2012. This study was conducted to determine the antibacterial activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) activity, total phenolic and flavonoid contents of this wild honey. All samples were extracted using 80% and absolute methanol. For antibacterial activity, wild A. cerana honey showed the strongest effect against all five different bacteria strains tested with its greatest activity against Bacillus cereus with the value of 16.00 mm (100% concentration) in 80% methanol extract. As for the MIC activity, wild A. cerana and wild A. nuluensis honey have the lowest MIC value against the tested bacteria with the lowest against Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis. Total phenolic and total flavonoid contents were highest in the wild A. cerana honey with the values of 10.43 ± .02 and 8.76 ± .00 mg/g in 80% methanol extract. These findings suggested that the wild honey from Sabah have a wide range of phytochemical content and antibacterial activities against different strains of bacteria which might contribute to the development of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals products.