Ozonización de mieles de abeja (Apis mellifera) para asegurar ausencia de mohos y levaduras, para aplicaciones medicinales.

Abstract

The aim of this study is the ozonation of bee honey experimentally contaminated with yeasts to assess their effect on them in order to use the results in different medicinal applications. In the study, two yeast strains were inoculated individually in bee honey saline solutions to 50% (experimentally established as non-lethal concentration for yeast) and treatments with ozone were applied at 99 ppm, 59 ppm and 19 ppm for 60 minutes exposure, for ozonization, an "homemade" device was designed using a BIOMAGNETIX ozonizer. The effect of ozone on yeasts was determined through a first viable count and the daily monitoring of fermentative activity through displacement of the plunger of the syringes. During the fermentation monitoring curve, it was observed that there are two periods, one where there is a momentary blocking time of the process (120 hours Candida albicans and 110 hours Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and another subsequent the time of momentary blockage where a fermentation restart is manifested, leading us to perform confirmatory tests of molecular oxygen assessment and a second count of viable of fermented samples, defining that the displacement of the plunger in the syringes is due to the combined pressure of oxygen generated by the decomposition of ozone and the CO2 produced for the yeasts that managed to adapt to the environment. The viable count shows that Candida albicans is inhibited with 59 ppm of ozone (95.6% inhibition) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with 19 ppm (88.8% inhibition) with an exposure of 60 minutes. It was concluded that ozone exerts a fungistatic activity on yeasts in saline solutions of bee honey to 50%, activity that can induce the use of ozonation as a prophylactic alternative in relevant applications.