Propolis is a resinous hive product collected by honeybees from various plant sources. It is a popular folk medicine possessing a broad spectrum of biological activities. It has also been used as a health drink in various Asian, European and American countries. Several groups of researchers have focused their attention on the biological activity of propolis and its active principles. Many scientific articles are published every year in different international journals related to the pharmacological properties of propolis. This review article compiles recent findings (since 1995) on the pharmacological properties of propolis focusing on its antihepatotoxic, antitumour, antioxidative, antimicrobial and antiinflammatory properties. The possible mechanism of action of propolis as well as the active compounds are discussed.

Tumor cells generally proliferate rapidly and the demand for essential nutrients as well as oxygen always exceeds the supply due to the unregulated growth and the insufficient and inappropriate vascular supply. However, cancer cells show an inherent ability to tolerate extreme conditions, such as that characterized by low nutrient and oxygen supply, by modulating their energy metabolism. Thus, targeting nutrientdeprived cancer cells may be a novel strategy in anticancer drug development. Based on that, we established a novel screening method to discover anticancer agents that preferentially inhibit cancer cell viability under the nutrientdeprived condition. After screening 500 medicinal plant extracts used in Japanese Kampo medicine, we found that a CH 2 Cl 2 -soluble extract of Arctium lappa exhibited 100% preferential cytotoxicity under the nutrient-deprived condition at a concentration of 50 Mg/mL with virtually no cytotoxicity under nutrient-rich condition. Further bioassayguided fractionation and isolation led to the isolation of arctigenin as the primary compound responsible for such preferential cytotoxicity; the compound exhibited 100% preferential cytotoxicity against nutrient-deprived cells at a concentration of 0.01 Mg/mL. Furthermore, arctigenin was also found to strongly suppress the PANC-1 tumor growth in nude mice, as well as the growth of several of the tested pancreatic cancer cell lines, suggesting the feasibility of this novel antiausterity approach in cancer therapy. Further investigation of the mechanism of action of arctigenin revealed that the compound blocked the activation of Akt induced by glucose starvation, which is a key process in the tolerance exhibited by cancer cells to glucose starvation.

The EtOAc-soluble fraction of the MeOH extract of propolis afforded a new prenylated chromane derivative, 3-hydroxy-2, 2-dimethyl-8-prenylchromane-6-propenoic acid (1), along with 22 known compounds, 2-23. Of the known compounds, 4, 7, 12-19, and 22 were isolated for the first time from propolis, and the absolute configuration of 23 was established as (2S,3R). Investigation suggested that Baccharis spp. are a significant source of tropical Brazilian propolis, in addition to Clusia minor, Clusia major, and Araucaria heterophylla. All the compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity toward human HT-1080 fibrosarcoma and murine colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells. Among these compounds, 9 and 19-21 showed potent cytotoxicity, having ED50 values equal to or less than 10 microg/mL.

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