Anti-microbial Properties and Toxicity Test of Stingless Bee Honey (Trigona itama), Ajwa Date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Seeds and Their Combinations

Most of bacterial cause infect have mutated into multidrug-resistance bacteria where current treatment or drugs are becoming less effective against them. It is an urge to seek the alternative remedies in solving the drug-resistance bacterial issues. Therefore, this study focused on identifying the anti-bacterial properties of stingless bee honey, Ajwa date seeds extract alone and their combinations through disc diffusion assay against Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The toxicity of both samples was identified using brine shrimp lethality assay. From the result, the sample of stingless bee honey alone showed the best inhibition against S. epidermidis with diameter of 10.17 ± 0.29 mm, and Ajwa date seeds exhibit the best inhibition with diameter of 9.67 ± 0.58 mm against S. aureus at concentration of 100 µg/ml. However, 1:2 combinations (stingless bee honey:Ajwa date seeds) showed the highest zone of inhibition compared to alone with diameter of 15.33 ± 0.58 mm and 14.33 ± 0.58 mm against S. aureus and S. epidermidis, respectively. The toxicity of stingless bee honey and Ajwa date seeds was determined to be toxic with LC50 values of 254.474 and 391.918 µg/ml, respectively, which indicates that the presence of bioactive compounds in both samples helps to inhibit the bacterial growth. For combination, all ratios exhibited the same percent of mortality with a value of 40%. As conclusion, this study proved that the combination of stingless bee honey and Ajwa date seeds exhibits anti-microbial properties that can act against drug resistance bacteria related to skin. Both samples are proven to have high potential of becoming new sources to combat skin infections bacteria agent.