Antibacterial substances in bee honey
Bee honey, if properly stored, does not deteriorate for a very long time. Archaeological finds in Egypt have shown that honey can retain its taste properties for thousands of years.
Do bactericidal properties have new honey varieties obtained by the express method from substances such as milk, egg protein, animal blood, etc., which under normal conditions are a good medium for the development of microbial flora?
In the laboratory of the Department of Microbiology of the Kiev Medical Institute, Professor M. P. Neshchadimenko, assistant professor AP Moroz and the author studied the antibacterial properties of ten honey samples obtained by the express method. For control, lime honey was taken, as well as a mixture of 40% glucose and 30% levulose and 0.02% formic acid in physiological saline.
We studied vitamin, hematogenous, mammine-vitamin, cocoa-milk-egg-vitamin varieties of honey. Bacterial cultures of pyogenic microbes and microbes that cause diseases of the intestinal tract (typhoid fever, paratyphoid A and B), bacteria Breslau and Gertner, bacteria of dysentery Shiga and Schmitz were taken for crops.
Crops were produced after 1–8 days on agar-agar, whey agar and broth. They made 2080 crops. The experiment was repeated twice, and the results coincided.
Studies have shown that in media with a high concentration of sugars (glucose – 40%, levulose – 30%) and 0.02% formic acid in physiological solution, the above microbes grew under thermostatic conditions. New honey samples and ordinary linden honey (control) have high antibacterial properties. Compared to the new samples, ordinary lime honey was less bactericidal.
These studies, as well as a well-preserved collection of 85 samples of new honey varieties, obtained by the express method, convince that the antibacterial substances of honey are undoubtedly the result of the secretory activity of worker bees. Such studies were tested by a number of authors, and the results were identical.
Professor M. P. Neshchadimenko studied bactericidal properties of some samples of new honey in relation to the causative agent of brucellosis. He found that urotropin honey was bactericidal against brucella. This once again convinces us that new varieties of honey have strong bactericidal properties. Artificial nectar was transformed in a complex living laboratory – the body of a bee.
It should be noted that the brucellosis rod is distinguished by its high life-stability: it maintains viability in milk for 60 days, and in wet soil – up to 72 days. Nevertheless, two drops of honey have such a high bactericidal strength that brucella dies in it. These studies give the right to consider that the express honey has pronounced antibacterial properties.
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