Antifungal activity of Malaysian honeys against trichophyton mentagrophytes and trichophyton rubrum / Ahmad Syamil Md Yasin

Skin, hair, nail and subcutaneous tissues in human and animal are subjected to infection by several organisms mainly fungi such as dermatophytes which causes dermatophytoses. Dermatophytoses are one of the most recurrent skin diseases of human, pets and livestock. The appearance of antifungal resistance fungus has lowered the success rates of antifungal therapy thus becoming a major concern worldwide. This has resulted in the re-evaluation of the therapeutic use of ancient remedies including honey. The antimicrobial activity of honey has been associated with its osmolarity, acidity, hydrogen peroxide, and non-hydrogen peroxide components. The aim of our study was to investigate the potential of selected Malaysian honeys namely Tualang, Acacia, Nenas and Kelulut as antifungal agent against 2 types of dermatophytes which were Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum. Manuka honey and Artificial sugar were used as comparison. The antifungal activity was examined by determining the MIC using the broth dilution assay on microtitre plates while MFC was determined by re-inoculation into agar plates from a well with each concentration of honey where fungal growth was inhibited (from the broth of MIC assay). The honey samples were tested at the concentrations of 70%, 60%, 50%, 25%, 12.5%, 6.25%, 3.1 %, 1.6%, 0.8%, 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.1 % (v/v) dilution. The result showed that all tested honey including Artificial sugar had antifungal activity against Tmentagrophytes and T'rubrum. Manuka honey needed MIC values of 51 % (v/v) to inhibit T.mentagrophytes and 53% (v/v) for T.rubrum.