Antibacterial Screening of Honey Samples From Western Ghats Apiaries Against Wound Pathogens

Abstract

Honey has been put on wounds for far longer than there have been antibiotics, and laboratory screens of honey against wound pathogens are now routine in many countries, including India. This narrative review asks what such a screen can and cannot tell us, using the published literature on the antibacterial components of honey, on the organisms that colonise and infect wounds, and on the design of susceptibility testing. No new laboratory data are reported, and no data from the apiaries of the Western Ghats are presented. Honey acts through several routes at once: a high sugar content, acidity, hydrogen peroxide generated by enzymatic activity, methylglyoxal in some floral types, the bee-derived peptide defensin-1, and plant phenolics. These routes respond differently to dilution, heat, light and floral origin, so the same jar can look potent in one assay and unremarkable in another. Studies of wound isolates, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, generally report inhibition, and several describe effects on biofilms and cell division, yet the studies differ in honey type, dilution, medium and inoculum, which makes comparison hard. Clinical evidence for honey dressings is more modest than the laboratory literature suggests. The review concludes that a screening result is a useful first filter for regional honeys, provided the honey is characterised, the assay is standardised and the claim is kept to the laboratory, and it lists the information a credible regional screen should report.