THAKUR, MEENAPARIHAR, AKWAL2020-10-062020-10-062020-10https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810152532ABSTRACT The study was intended to evaluate the physico-chemical, microbial and antibacterial characteristics of hive bees (Apis cerana and Apis mellifera) honey from different locations of Himachal Pradesh. The various physico-chemical parameters viz., pH, moisture, colour, sucrose, F:G ratio, acidity, phenols and hydrogen peroxide content ranged from 3.40 to 4.70, 15.70 to 18.60 per cent, 0.29-1.24 (white to light amber), 3.15 to 3.60 per cent, 1.06 to 1.73, 29.8 to 38.62 meq/kg, 57.90 to 99.65 mg/100g and 131.93-286.97 mg/kg, respectively for A. cerana honey, whereas 3.60 - 4.80, 15.90 to 18.00 per cent, 0.33 to 0.66 (white to light amber), 2.89 to 3.43 per cent, 1.09 to 1.72, 29.6 to 39.84 meq/kg, 63.29 to 101.67 mg/100g and 122.40-208.73 mg/kg, respectively for A. mellifera honey. Comparative analysis showed that A. cerana honey had highest moisture (17.38%), OD (0.50), sucrose (3.33) and H2O2(201.92 mg/kg) content whereas, significantly highest acidity (36.32 meq/kg) and phenol content (82.40 mg/100g) was recorded for A. mellifera honey. Microbial analysis demonstrated that a total of 26 bacterial morphotypes (14 from A. cerana and 12 from A. mellifera honey) were obtained from honey of hive bees. No fungal isolate was recorded in any of the processed honey samples. The overall bacterial load (log CFU/g) encountered in the honey of both the species varied from 3.404.26, lower than the documented hazardous limit (105 cells/g), ensuring the safety of honey for human consumption. Based on morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization (16S rRNA ribotyping), the most dominant but morphologically different type of bacterial strains viz., HC3, HC5, HC6, HC8 and HM2 encountered from hive bees honey were identified as Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Bacillus subtilis subsp. stercoris, Bacillus safensissubsp. safensis, Bacillus zanthoxyliand Bacillus safensissubsp. safensis, respectively and were assigned with NCBI GenBank assession no. as MT742636, MT742637, MT742638, MT742639 and MT938911, respectively. The antibacterial potential (agar well diffusion) and MIC values demonstrated that the honey of hive bees displayed good (21-30mm) to excellent (31-40mm) inhibition activity against Escherichia coli ATCC1041 whereas, fair (10-20mm) to good inhibition activity against Bacillus subtilis ATCC6633, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC10662, Salmonella typhi NCTC786 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC13883. E. coli was the most sensitive bacterium among all the tested pathogens The antibacterial activity of honey explicates its use as therapeutic agent, for the treatment of various ailments caused by pathogenic bacteria. The honey of A. cerana and A. mellifera from Himachal Pradesh is of good quality as values of all the analyzed parameters were within approved limits by FSSAI (2018EnglishThesis