Antibacterial Activity of Honey and Bee Pollen Collected from Bee Hives from Three Climatic Regions of Golestan Province Against some Clinical Isolates with High Antibiotic Resistance

Abstract

Honey and bee pollen are among useful and valuable food products that have been used as medicine in treatment of diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial potential of three samples of honey and bee pollen collected from bee hives of three climatic regions in Golestan province against clinical isolates of Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas. After isolating and identification of clinical isolates, antibiotic resistance pattern of isolates was determined by Kirby-Bauer method. After selecting 20 isolates with the highest level of resistance to antibiotics, antibacterial effects of honey and bee pollen samples against them was evaluated using by well method and also determining the MIC by the broth dilution method. The samples of honey and bee pollen of Ramiyan forests region have the most antibacterial activity; So that the mean of diameter of inhibition zone in the well method was evaluated as 22.9 mm for honey and 13.9 mm for bee pollen. The MIC for this honey sample was 107.2 mg/mL and for its bee pollen extract 404.2 mg/mL. Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates showed the most sensitivity and Enterococcus faecalis isolates showed the highest resistance in well method. Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, along with Enterococcus faecalis, had the highest level of resistance in broth dilution method. The difference in amount of antibacterial activity of honey and bee pollen different samples can be attributed to plant origin and the type of flower that bee feeds on, geographical location and climatic conditions.