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drug-resistant pathogens inhibited — by every honey tested, not just ours
Laboratory study · Tested in a dish · Five honeys: Talah, Dhahian, Sidr, and two Sumra samples
What they did
Five honeys — Talah, Dhahian, Sidr, Sumra-1 and Sumra-2 — were analysed for sugars, pH, flavonoids, phenolics, hydrogen peroxide, minerals and trace elements. Each was then tested against seventeen human pathogenic bacteria, sixteen of them multi-resistant, plus three fungi, at dilutions from 10% to 100%.
What they found
- The two Sumra samples held the highest flavonoids and phenolics of the five, and the lowest hydrogen peroxide.
- A single dose of every honey inhibited all seventeen pathogens at 24 and at 72 hours.
- The most sensitive organisms were Aspergillus nidulans, Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus epidermidis.
- The authors state there was no statistically significant difference between the honeys — despite considerable variation in their composition.
What this study does not show
- The headline finding is that the honeys were equivalent. Anyone quoting this to prove one honey beats another has quoted it backwards, and we are not going to.
- In a dish, undiluted honey against bacteria on a plate. Not an infection, not a person.
- Composition varied a lot and the effect did not. That is a reason to be careful about reading too much into a phenolic number.
- The paper does not state that the Sidr or Sumra samples came from Yemen.
Why we publish it
It is the only paper we found that puts Sidr and Sumra in the same table. We are publishing it because of its inconvenient conclusion, not in spite of it.
The study.AL-Waili N, Al Ghamdi A, Ansari MJ, Al-Attal Y, Al-Mubarak A, Salom K. Differences in composition of honey samples and their impact on the antimicrobial activities against drug multiresistant bacteria and pathogenic fungi.
Archives of Medical Research, 2013;44(4):307–16.
doi.org/10.1016/j.arcmed.2013.04.009
What this page is. These are summaries of published research about honey as a substance. They are not claims about DIVINEDROP products. No DIVINEDROP honey diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents any disease. Honey is a sugar-rich food, it is not suitable for infants under 12 months, and anyone managing a health condition should speak to their doctor.
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