National Honey Bee Breeding Strategy 2024-2029
In all livestock industries, genetic selection has been used to increase animal productivity and, by extension, enterprise profitability. The Australian honey bee industry is no...
HONEY BEE & POLLINATION
Rapid Method for Measuring the Antimicrobial Activity of Honey
29 pages
Published: 16 Feb 2011
Author(s): Black, John
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Honey has been used as a therapeutic agent since ancient times. It is particularly useful for treating open infections with relatively poor blood supply, including skin wounds on the extremities of the body and stomach ulcers caused by the helicobacter organism. Honey is known to have antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi resistant to many antibiotics and can control bacteria living in biofilms, which have proven difficult to control by conventional means. But honey samples vary widely in their antimicrobial activity.
This RIRDC report summarises the possibility of using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for rapidly measuring the antimicrobial activity of honey. The report is targeted at the marketers of honey and potentially to laboratories that could provide an analytical service for measuring the antimicrobial activity of honey.
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