Effects of kelulut honey on gram negative bacteria

Honey has been known since long time ago to possess anti-bacterial properties and used to treat infected wound. But, there was less data reported on anti-microbial of kelulut honey compared with tualang honey. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate anti-microbial activity of kelulut honey against three Gram-negative bacteria; Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella thypi. The anti­ microbial activity of total 13 samples of kelulut honey from two different species of stingless bees [Hetrotrigona itama (8 samples) and Geniotrigona thoracica (5 samples)] and tualang honey (Apis dorsata) was evaluated. Disc diffusion method were used in this study to investigate the susceptibility of honey samples at five different concentration (5%, 10%, 25%, 50% and 75%) per v/v. Tualang honey only inhibits E. coli growth at 75% v/v with diameter zone of inhibition of 7 mm but no inhibitory effects against other two bacteria tested. While, kelulut honey produced by Geniotrigona itama show varies zone of inhibition against all tested bacteria with diameter range of (6.5-8) mm. One sample ofkelulut honey produced by Hetrotrigona itama abbreviated as sample M in Table 4.4 was observed not inhibit all three bacteria. There were significant differences for tualang honey and kelulut honey in diameter zone of inhibition of tested Gram-negative bacteria. Mean diameter zone of inhibition of each sample of kelulut honey when compared with tualang honey was significantly different (p < 0.05) after analyzed using student sample t-test.