Honey antimicrobial activity

Some phenolic acids such as ellagic acid can be used as floral markers of heather honey (Cherchi et al., 1994 Ferreres et al., 1996a,b), and the hydroxyciimamates (caffeic, p-coumaric, and ferulic acids) as floral markers of chestnut honey (Cherchi et al., 1994). Pinocembrin, pinobanksin, and chrysin are the characteristic flavonoids of propolis, and these flavo-noid compounds have been found in most European honey samples (Tomas-Barberan et al., 2001). However, for lavender and acacia honeys, no specific phenolic compoimds could be used as suitable floral markers (Tomas-Barberan et al., 2001). Other potential phytochemical markers like abscisic acid may become floral markers in heather honey (Cherchi et al., 1994). Abscisic acid was also detected in rapeseed, lime, and acacia honey samples (Tomas-Barberan et al., 2001). Snow and Manley-Harris (2004) studied antimicrobial activity of phenolics. 

Sherlock, O., Dolan, A., Athman, R., Power, A., Gethin, G., Cowman, S., Humphreys, H., 2010. Comparison of the antimicrobial activity of Ulmo honey from Chile and manuka honey against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bmc Complementary and Alternative Medicine 10 (1), 47. 

C Basualdo, V Sgroy, M S Finola and J M Marioli, Comparison of the antimicrobial activity of honey fiom different provenance against bacteria usually isolated fixnn skin wounds , Vet Microbial, 2007 124 375-381. 

Social insects appear to protect themselves by producing antibiotics [106]. Honey contains antimicrobial substances [107] and ants produce low molecular weight compounds with broad-spectrum activity [108]. 

At the Textile Engineering Department of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade, an intensive research on biomedical textile materials with antimicrobial and combined effects is recently conducted. Besides antibiotics, honey and essential oils of different plants - fir, rosemary and StJohn s worth- were used to attain biological activity of medical textile materials [21-24]. 

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