Comparison of biochemical and antimicrobial activities of different honey samples

Abstract

Honey, a natural healing agent and a sweet food, has been used since ancient times. A honey sample could possess many biological activities depending on its chemical composition. The amount and the diversity of these minor components of honey mainly depend on the floral sources. That is why the biological activity of the honey sample obtained in a region should be determined. In this study, total phenolic and flavonoid content, antioxidant activity, melissopalynological analyses and antimicrobial activity of twenty honey samples obtained from Doganyol, Malatya, Turkey were examined. In order to determine the in vitro antibacterial activity of honey samples, the agar well diffusion (AWD) method, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays were used. For this purpose, ten Gram-positive bacteria and eight Gram-negative bacteria were used. Total phenolic content was found in the range from 9.68 +/- 0.72 to 29.40 +/- 1.03 mg GAE g(-1) sample. Antioxidant activity of honey samples varied from 2.21 +/- 0.46 to 6.03 +/- 1.11 mu mol FeSO4 7H(2)O g(-1). Honey samples showed moderate antimicrobial activity against tested microorganisms, especially against Gram-positive bacteria. It could be concluded from our findings that there is a good correlation between total phenolic content and the biological activity of honey samples.