Ozturk's students prepare for their work studying the reaction of bacterial cultures to honey by practicing their precision and accuracy transferring food coloring dye with a micropipette.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 — The jars filled with deep and light amber shades of honey taking up most of the shelves in the office of Ferhat Ozturk are evidence of his decade-long love exploring the medicinal potential of the sticky and sweet ingredient. This fall, Ozturk, an assistant professor in the UTSA College of Sciences’ Department of Integrative Biology, is expanding students’ understanding of honey as an antibiotic and healing agent.
Ozturk and his students will spend the semester testing varieties of honey in various bacterial cultures to identify which are best at killing and/or inhibiting the growth of these bacteria.
“Honey has been used as an antibacterial solution for thousands of years. The Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Turks, for example, used honey for wound healing. It’s been shown to kill bacteria—almost any bacteria. Our main objective is to find which honey can be used best for which disease and at the same time which honey has the most healing potential,” Ozturk said.
Ferhat Ozturk and his students will spend the semester testing varieties of honey in various bacterial cultures to identify which are best at killing and/or inhibiting the growth of the bacteria. Photos by Ari Castañeda
But before battling bacteria, Ozturk’s undergraduate students sharpened their skills with a micropipette, a tool used to transfer a measured volume of liquid. To prepare for their work studying the reaction of bacterial cultures to honey, the students first practiced their precision and accuracy with the tool by transferring food coloring dye.
“It’s a learning process,” Ozturk told one student as they measured microliters of colored dye.
With its anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antioxidant and anti-aging properties, honey is effective as a treatment for many ailments and conditions. Honey can soothe inflammation resulting from intestinal and gum diseases. It protects cells from free radicals that cause illnesses and helps replenish them to a healthier state. With no side effects, Ozturk points out that honey can also serve as an aid to treating mouth sores suffered by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Ozturk, who regularly visits beekeepers and attends bee conventions, is collecting honey samples from San Antonio and other regions of Texas. He’s searching for the leading medical-grade honey that can help heal infected wounds and prevail against antimicrobial resistance—when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them.
“Not every honey has the same potential for every bacterium,” Ozturk explained. “Buckwheat, for example, has one of the highest potentials of healing properties but there’s still medicinal activity in the lighter colored honeys.”
Having moved on from colored dyes, Ozturk’s students are becoming acquainted with bacteria. Carefully transferring a bacteria liquid culture into an agar plate, Nhi Ho, a sophomore studying microbiology, said she chose Ozturk’s course for its interesting topic and because it provided her with a hands-on research opportunity as an undergraduate student.
The Medicinal Properties of Honey course is among a host of new research opportunities offered by the integrative biology department’s Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) partnerships. CUREs offer several key features that traditional lab and field courses may lack, such as having students conduct original research that is of interest to stakeholders outside of the classroom and ensuring that students are involved in the iterative research process, repeatedly problem-solving and troubleshooting as needed and generating new questions and research directions. These research experiences include everything from uncovering novel viruses, decoding genetic pathways, discovering new sources of antibiotics and more.
Ho and the rest of the class spread the liquid culture on the small plate. Once growth occurs—results should be visible two days later—the students will introduce honey.
“Honey is healing for mankind,” said Ozturk. “It changed my approach to medicine. I made the link and the more I learn how honey has been used as medicine, the more fascinated I become,” he said.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Join the UTSA community in celebrating the life of Dr. Thelma Duffey.
Aula Canaria (BV 1.328), Buena Vista Building, Downtown CampusThe proposed annual BME Research Symposium will allow students to present their undergraduate research free of charge, providing them with the opportunity to network and build their professional skills.
H-E-B Student Union Ballroom 1 & 2, Main CampusThe UTSA Marches Committee, in partnership with the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Education Foundation, invites everyone to the 27th annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice. This event is in conjunction with the "Yes We CAN" food donation drive with the San Antonio Food Bank. Guests are encouraged to bring canned food items with them to the march to deposit cans into barrels before the march begins.
1310 Guadalupe St, San Antonio, TX 78207Join us to learn about how Impostor Syndrome can affect your career decisions and how you view yourself, your knowledge, and abilities. You will leave with actionable items related to implementing coping strategies for symptoms that may arise in your career development (mentally, physically, emotionally).
University Career Center (S.U. 2.02.04,) Main CampusJoin UTSA librarians for this introductory workshop for early career faculty on how to build your online scholarly identity.
John Peace Library, GroupSpot BJoin the conversation with Karleen Pendleton Jimenez, a professor in the Department of Gender and Social Justice at Trent University.
Virtual EventLearn to use the dynamic tool VMOCK to assist you in your job/internship search. Evaluate your resume. Get feedback on your "elevator pitch" and on how you engage in verbal communication virtually and in-person.
Multidisciplinary Studies (MS 2.02.36,) Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.