بررسي اثرات ضد باكتريايي بره موم PROPOLIS

ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF PROPOLIS(BEE GLUE) AGAINST NOCARDIA STRAINS

Honey bees are organisms living in a highly complex social structure and as mentioned in the Holy Quran are godly driven creatures. The medicinal use of honey and various bee hive products down the centuries is known to all . One of the most useful products of the beehive is "propolis", a resinous substance that is collected by bees from buds. The effect of propolis on bacteria could be related to its high percentage of flavonoid content and also the presence of caffeic acid esters. These observations have drawn attention towards the antibacterial properties of propolis . We decided to test the ability of methanolic extract of propolis to prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria in-vitro. The anti-bacterial properties of propolis against 13 strains of Nocardia (N. asteroides and N. brasiliensis) as original bacteria and other 12 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, and Shigella flexneri, as elective organisms were investigated. 2 agar distribution methods (drop plate, disk plate) were performed. After preparing 7 concentrations of methanolic extract of propolis and distribution of the extract in cultured agar media, the diameter of the clear zone formed, which was related to the ability of extract to prevent the growth of bacteria was measured . According to the results , N. asteroides and N. brasiliensis have shown almost the same susceptibility to various concentrations of propolis extract , and the complete clear zones revealed that this effect was quite remarkable. For other bacteria, different degrees of susceptibility to propolis was observed. In addition, we came to this conclusion that zones formed by Amikacin (50 mg/ml) in agar was similar to that of 5% concentration of propolis, and that the potency of propolis is 80% of Amikacin potency, which is the most effective antibiotic against Nocardia.