Evaruation of microbiological quality of Tanzania honey

I loney is a sweet viscous liquid produced by bees (Apis mellifera) through enzymatic action on nectar collected from different flowers, lt has been used by many people of different cultures throughout the world since ancient times for its medicinal and nutritive properties. T In very recent years honey has been explored by medical practitioner’s tor its use in health care Is systems as it has shown promising results in the treatment of wounds from burns and other causes. Unfortunatetery studies have shown that honey can be contaminated with microorganisms which may impair its safety and quality. In this study the microbiological quality of honey collected from various areas of l Tanzania including Moshi, Rufiji and Tabora was determined. A total of ten honey samples obtained from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, street venders, supermarkets and other retail stores were investigated R>r their microbial quality. The diluted honey was inoculated on Nutrient, and Sabouraud’s Dextrose agar to check for presence of bacteria and fungi respectively. Using the same media, numbers • of colonies per gram of each honey samples were determined. Various methods • including Gram stain, oxidase test and afferential media, Mc Conkey Agar were used to determine the type of bacteria present in the honey samples. Wet and Touch method was used to determine the type of Fun present in honey samples. This study has shown the presence of several Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, and several types of Fungi including, probably, Aspergillus. The bacterial counts ranged horn 7 to 275 CFU per gram and that of fungi were .6 to 62 CFU/g. According to the USP specifications the honey is within the required microbial limit. However, this study was unable to establish all kinds of bacteria and fungi to limitation of both time and reagents hence the results are not conclusive to guarantee a l00% safety of honey tor human consumption and use in wound dressing Additional studies need to be done to determine the a1etual species of microorganism present in honey