Apitherapy is one of the practices in natural care, based on products of the hive such as: honey, royal jelly, propolis ... etc. Propolis is a resinous product gathered by honey bees from tree buds (Dimov et al., 1991;Amoros et al., 1992). Its main constituents are beeswax, resin and volatile matter. Mostly, the biological activity of propolis is ascribed to these plant-extracted substances. It has been appeared to have pharmacological properties for example antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunostimulant (Silici et al., 2007). Successful medical experiments with propolis have prompted expanded interest in its chemical composition and origin. For quality control purposes, chemical tests should be joined with biological tests, particularly antimicrobial tests. The antimicrobial activity of propolis has been broadly studied, affirming its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal character (Vardar-Ünlü et al., 2008). Krol et al. (1993) detailed that propolis extracts potentiate certain antibiotic effects attributing the antimicrobial activity of propolis for the most part to flavonoids or to a synergy between certain phenolic components (Vijay, 2013). The main bioactive components coming from North American and European sources are flavanones, flavones and flavanols. Apart from flavonoids, aldehydes, alcohols, aromatic and aliphatic acids, amino acids, chalcones, steroids, sugars and terpenoids have additionally been detected in propolis (Silici et al., 2007). Numerous experiments have been carried out on the chemical constitution of propolis, the results of which have shown that this composition depends on the botanical source of this resin. Propolis of temperate areas is essentially composed of phenolics such as flavonoids and cinnamic acid byproducts. Besides these compounds, tropical propolis are rich in diterpenes, lignans and some other prenylated compounds (Segueni, 2011). Algeria, despite its geographical position which differs from the other areas mentioned above, is likely to supply different propolis, especially from a chemical viewpoint. The antimicrobial activity and chemical properties of propolis are essential parameters for its characterization (Silici et al., 2007). All these data led us to study the biological properties of two propolis from Eastern Algeria. A comparative study based on antimicrobial activity was carried out: the antibacterial and antifungal effects of propolis extracts were tested on clinically pathogenic microorganisms including bacteria, fungus and yeast. An analysis of the chemical composition of the propolis extracts in order to discover their main components. Our work focused on polyphenols and more particularly flavonoids, which are essential elements of several biological activities of propolis, like the antimicrobial one. The identification and structure determination of these components is carried out by visible UV spectrometry, as well as other chromatographic techniques.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Material usedThe propoli...
