Anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities of selected honey samples

Abstract

The medical property of honey in wound healing was reported due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities. It is believed that polar compounds including sugars and polyphenols in honey could contribute to the biological activities. In this study, crude honey samples of Tualang, Gelam and Acacia were fractionated into polar fractions using a C18 reversed-phase extraction column. The polar fractions were found to be more effective than crude honey samples because of lower effective concentration (0.04-0.37 g mL-1) at 50% of inhibition. However, the polar fractions did not improve the selectivity of inhibition against cyclooxygenase-2. Polar fractionation also did not improve the anti-microbial activities of crude honey samples. The improvement was only showed by Tualang honey fraction (~70%) with the minimum inhibitory concentration (3.1% (w/v)) against Candida albican. The potential bioactive compounds were putatively identified as hydroxymethylfurfural, ethyl glucuronide, myricetin and apigenin glycoside based on the results of LC-MS/MS.