Antimicrobial activity of bacterial isolates from different floral sources of honey

More than two thousand bacterial strains isolated from six US domestic honeys and two manuka honeys from New Zealand were screened for production of antimicrobial compounds. A high incidence of antimicrobial inhibition determined by deferred inhibition assays was observed with the bacterial isolates from all eight honey samples. In total, 2217 isolates out of 2398 strains (92.5% of total isolates) exhibited antimicrobial activity against at least one of the tested microorganisms. Antifungal activity by bacterial isolates originating from the eight honeys ranged from 44.4% to 98.0%. Bacterial isolates from manuka honey (MH1) exhibited antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 and Bacillus cereus F4552, at 51.5% and 53.3% of the isolates, respectively. However, less than 30% of the bacterial isolates from the other manuka honey (MH2) and six domestic honey sources exhibited anti-Bacillus activity. Listeria monocytogenes F2-586 1053 showed higher overall rates of sensitivity to between 11 and 66% of the bacterial isolates. The high rate of antimicrobial activity exhibited by the bacterial strains isolated from different honey sources could provide potential sources of novel antimicrobial compounds.