AVALIAÇÃO IN VITRO DA ATIVIDADE ANTIMICROBIANA DO MEL DA ABELHA MELIPONA SCUTELLARIS SOBRE O FUNGO MALASSEZIA PACHYDERMATIS

Abstract

Honey is a natural food produced by different species of bees, which has antimicrobial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory activity. Bees without sting or meliponíneos, constitute a group of more than 300 species, among them the Melipona scutellaris, also well-known like "Uruçu of the Nordeste". Malassezia pachydermatis is an opportunistic pathogen that can act alone or in association with other agents, causing an external otitis in the animal. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of honey M. scutellaris in the fight against M. pachydermatis, in vitro, also comparing honey collected in two different regions of the Brejo Paraibano. Apis mellifera honey was also used for comparison purposes, taking into account its low cost. The honey was used by adding it to the Sabouraud agar medium Cloranfenicol in the different concentrations of 50%, 37,5%, 25% and 12,5%. In the positive control was added to the Sabouraud agar medium Chloramphenicol the medicine Auritop®, in the concentration of 50%. In the negative control, only the Sabouraud agar medium Clorafenicol was used. The experiment was performed in triplicate for each concentration, positive and negative control. The honey treatments used were named T1 = honey from M. scutellaris from the city of Bananeiras, T2 = honey from M. scutellaris from the city of Areia and T3 = honey from A. mellifera from the city of Bananeiras. The results obtained took into account the inhibition of growth of M. pachydermatis by honey in the 48 hour period in the oven at 37ºC. It was observed that in T1 and T3 from 25% the growth was null. However, in T2 with increasing concentration there was growth in all plaques, this may have been caused by the more liquid state of this honey. In the negative controls there was growth in 100% and in the positive controls there was no growth of the fungus. At the end of the research it was observed that honey has therapeutic activity in different concentrations against yeast, which may mean, after other in vitro and in vivo safety studies, besides clinical , an alternative for the treatment of otitis caused by this fungus.