Microbiological and Physico-chemical Examination of Some Honey Samples from Southwest, Nigeria.

Honey samples have been characterized in different parts of the world and have showed to possess healing potentials with health promoting capacity. The microbiological and physico-chemical characteristics of honey samples from southwest zone of Nigeria were studied. The isolated micro-organisms were bacteria, Enterobacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes); Pseudomonas Spp, (Pseudomonas pudida, pseudomonas cepacia, pseudomonas fluorescens, pseudomonas chlororaphis); Bacillus spp, Staphylococcus Spp (S. saprophyticus, S. aureus); Aeromonas hydrophilia and fungi, Aspergillus Spp and Candida Spp. The physico-chemical analysis showed that pH of honey samples ranged from 5.00-5.50, while the viscosity ranged from 48.60-89.50 at 200C. The ranged obtained for other parameters were 0.471-0.635for specific gravity; 62.10-77.80 for percentage total reducing sugar; 18.75-29.30 for percentage moisture content; while the range for percentage mineral contents for calcium and potassium were 1.11-3.18 and 1.30-3.80 respectively. Growths were obtained on almost all media used, with the microbial load of Coliform ranging from 1.2-7.2x101, while the heterotrophic count ranged from 0.8-5.4x101. The count of Salmonella Shigella Agar (SSA) ranged from 0.2-3.6x101 while the yeast-mould count ranged from 0.2-6.0x101. Hazard analysis of the products and processing of honey showed the occurrence of numbers of microbial contaminants could be due to contamination from secondary sources (dust, wind, processing equipment or materials, handlers, processing room or from the environmental sources (storage room, marketing environment and collection environment (farm). The antibiotic sensitivity testing of the isolates showed that a number of the bacteria isolates were resistant to antibiotics with the number of such resistance ranging from 3-8 antibiotics