Qualitative Analysis and Biological Evaluation of Propolis from Armenia and Georgia

Year 2018, Volume: 1 Issue: 3 - 2nd Propolis Conference Special Issue, 61 - 61, 08.12.2018

Argyro Petropoulou İoanna Chınou Konstantia Graıkou

Abstract

Propolis is a bee-keeping product of
increasing interest as it has been used widely in food industry as well as in
cosmetics; while its chemical composition is highly variable and depends mainly
on the local flora as well as the geographic
and climatic differences in the collection sites. Therefore it is necessary to
characterize propolis, chemistry in order to confirm quality and safe use.

As a part of our systematic research on
different propolis from all over the world, we report in this study the chemical
analyses of two Euroasian samples from Armenia and Georgia respectively, which to the best of our knowledge have not been
studied before.

All chemical analyses were performed by
GC/MS using silylation procedure¹. According to our results, both
samples showed the characteristic identity profile of a typical propolis from
Temperate zone², as they contained mainly aromatic acids
(p-coumaric, caffeic and ferulic acids), esters of phenolic acids (pentenyl and
phenylethyl caffeates), flavonoids and chalcones (galangin, pinocembrin,
pinobanksin and its 3-O-acetate, as well as pinocembrin, pinobanksin and
pinostrobin chalcones).

Furthermore, their total phenolic content
was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method showing comparable high phenolics
in both samples, which is in accordance with the results from GC-MS analysis.

The ethanolic extracts were also assayed
for their antimicrobial activity against nine human pathogenic bacteria and
fungi, showing an interesting profile, while they exerted a more specific
activity towards the Gram positive studied strains.

 

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to
thank Prof. Alexander Panossian (Head of Research & Development –
Swedish Herbal Institute, Sweden) for providing the
Armenian propolis sample.

Keywords

Biological Evaluation, Propolis, GC/MS

References

• 1. Popova Μ., Chinou Ι., Marekov Ι. and Bankova V. (2009). Terpenes with antimicrobial activity from Cretan propolis. Phytochemistry, 70: 1262-1271.
• 2. Bankova V., de Castro S.L. and Marcucci M.C. (2000). Propolis: recent advances in chemistry and plant origin.Apidologie 2000, 31, 3-15.