ABSTARCT

This research work evaluated the antibacterial activity of honey, ginger, and garlic mixtures on some respiratory tract bacterial pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pneumoniae) obtained from Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia state. Honey, honey and ginger(1g), honey and garlic(1g) and honey, ginger(0.5g), and garlic(0.5g) were used for this work. Agar well diffusion method was used for susceptibility testing while the Broth dilution method was used for determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The Streak method was used for the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The antibiotic susceptibility test of the test organisms was done using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The result showed that all the honey mixtures and even honey alone exhibited inhibitory effect on the test organisms. Honey-garlic mixture had the highest zone of inhibition ranging from 10mm-16mm. Less activity was observed when honey was used singly. Honey-garlic mixture exhibited a high bactericidal effect against Klebsiella pneumoniae (16mm) than the other test isolate. The minimum inhibitory concentration value of honey-garlic mixture against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pneumoniae is 12.5mg/ml concentration with the minimum bactericidal concentration value 25mg/ml. The minimum inhibitory concentration value of honey alone against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus is 25mg/ml concentration with the minimum bactericidal concentration value 100mg/ml and 50mg/ml respectively. The result showed that the honey and garlic mixture showed more activity than when honey was used alone. All the isolates used in this research were found to be multidrug resistant. This has scientifically proved that the use of honey, ginger, and garlic combination could be adopted in the treatment of people suffering from cough and that the mixture when refined could serve as a good tool in the pharmaceutical industry in manufacturing drug for treatment of cough caused by respiratory tract pathogens especially those multidrug resistant organisms.