The antipseudomonal property of honey and gentamicin.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has a notorious characteristic of resistance to most antimicrobial compounds. This characteristic was subjected to verification in the present study, whereby 50 human isolates of the organism from different pathological sources were subjected to sensitivity tests against honey from three different sources by the agar-cup diffusion method. Gentamicin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic normally with activity against Gram-negative bacteria, was used alongside honey. The 50 isolates of P. aeruginosa showed 100% sensitivity to each of the three types of honey tested in their undiluted form. This was not the case with gentamicin used in 8 and 4 µg/ml concentrations, both of which varied in their antipseudomonal activity, like the 1:2 aqueous dilution of each honey which failed to appreciably inhibit a lower number of pseudomonal isolates than either of the two concentrations of gentamicin. Honey is suggested as an effective natural product in overcoming the widespread antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa.