Analysis of antimicrobial activity of ampicillin combined with Geniotrigona thoracica honey using Kirby-Bauer method

Antimicrobial is widely used in pharmacology especially in wound treatment by killing the bacteria that delaying the wound healing process. In this study, the combination therapy between Ampicillin and Geniotrigona thoracica (GT) honey was studied to increase the antimicrobial efficiency and lowering the emergence of ampicillin resistance. The objectives of this study are (1) to identify the physiochemical and phytochemical properties of GT honey; (2) to study the concentration of GT honey that gave the highest antimicrobial activity towards different pathogenic bacteria, and; (3) to analyse the antimicrobial effectiveness of ampicillin combined with GT honey. Antimicrobial activity of GT honey is due to physiochemical properties such as acidity and high sugar content, and phytochemical properties such as phenolic and flavonoid substances. The value of pH, total sugar content, phenolic content, and flavonoid content of GT honey are pH 2.86, 69.8%, 110.23 μg/mL, and 24.13 μg/mL, respectively. In order to combine ampicillin with GT honey, the concentration of GT honey that gave the highest antimicrobial activity was analysed. The antimicrobial activity of different concentration of GT honey such as 0.34 g/mL, 0.68 g/mL, 1.01 g/mL and 1.35 g/mL was analysed using Kirby-Bauer method which is known as disk diffusion method towards two different bacteria which are Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The concentration that gave the highest antimicrobial activity towards S. aureus and E. coli are both 1.35 g/mL. Therefore, 1.35g/mL concentration of GT honey was combined with ampicillin to study the effectiveness of this combination therapy by using Kirby-Bauer method. The antimicrobial activity analysis of combination of GT honey and ampicillin proved that this combination can gave a higher antimicrobial activity against S. aureus compared to GT honey and ampicillin separately. Therefore, this combination can be applied for therapeutic purpose to reduce the development of ampicillin resistance and increase the antimicrobial efficiency.