INVESTIGATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECTS OF ONION JUICE, HONEY AND ONION-HONEY COUGH CURE ON E. COLI AND S. AUREUS

摘要

Since the ancient times, onion and honey is used to cure several diseases, mostlyudbecause of their antibacterial properties. Onion-honey cough cure is a remedy prepared withudonion juice and honey and it is used to alleviate cough and the symptoms of cold. Althoughudthis remedy is used a lot in Turkey, it is not certain whether the onion-honey cough cure isudmore effective against the bacteria compared to only onion juice or only honey. Because ofudthat, the aim of this experiment was to investigate the antibacterial effects of onion juice,udhoney and onion-honey cough cure for their different concentrations. Since the resistivity ofudgram-positive and gram-negative bacteria towards antibacterial agents are different,udantibacterial effects of onion-honey cough cure, onion juice and honey investigated on audgram-negative bacterium, E. coli, and a gram-positive bacterium, S. aureus separately.udMicrotiter plates were filled with different concentrations of onion juice, honey and onionhoneyudcough cure and they were inoculated with S. aureus and E. coli with the help of MicroudDilution Test.udIt was found that since onion-honey cough cure has the same antibacterial propertyudwith the flower honey for E. coli (reproduction of E. coli both starts at a concentration ofud50%) and it has the same antibacterial property with onion juice for S. aureus (reproduction ofudS. aureus both starts at a concentration of 6.25%), it cannot be accepted that onion-honeyudcough cure has a greater antibacterial effect compared to onion juice and flower honey.udBesides that, it was seen that S. aureus was more susceptible to onion juice, honey and onionhoneyudcough cure compared to E. coli when the concentration they start to reproduce isudcompared. On the other hand, difference between the antibacterial effects of onion juice,udhoney and onion-honey cough cure and the difference between the susceptibility of E. coliudand S. aureus cannot be proven statistically since the p values of Chi-square test was alwaysudbigger than 0.05.udTo sum up, results of the experiment showed that onion juice, honey and onion-honeyudcough cure have all antibacterial properties on the gram positive bacteria, S. aureus, and gramudnegative bacteria, E. coli but the difference between their effectiveness cannot be proved withudChi-square test due to unbalanced distribution of the data.