The post-antibiotic effect of manuka honey on gastrointestinal pathogens

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have shown that honey has substantial antimicrobial activity [1]. This has mostly been demonstrated by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) tests in which microorganisms are exposed to a constant level of honey for a long period. However, the efficacy of honey taken orally would be greatly affected by dilution in large amounts of body fluids and water from food and drink as well as by a short period of contact with bacterial cells owing to rapid peristalsis in the gastrointestinal tract. We therefore investigated how long it would take manuka honey to eliminate microorganisms and whether or not honey has a post-antibiotic effect (PAE) similar to other common drugs.