Anti-inflammatory and antibacterial profiles of selected compounds found in South African propolis

Abstract

IntroductionPropolis is a complex resinous substance manufactured by honeybees. It consists of exudates collected from the parts of various plant species, substances secreted from bee metabolism, and materials which are introduced during propolis elaboration. [1][2][3] In general, it is composed of 50% resin and vegetable balsam, 30% wax, 10% essential and aromatic oils, 5% pollen and 5% various other organic substances including debris. Exudates collected from leaves and leaf buds, mucilages, gums, resins and latices contribute the most to the constituents of propolis.2 Of these, the largest group of compounds is the flavonoid pigments, such as luteolin, eriodictyol, galangin and quercetin. Flavonoids are ubiquitous in the plant kingdom, occurring naturally in foods and at concentrations of <0.1-0.7% in propolis.2,4-7 Other non-flavonoid constituents include caffeic acids and their esters (2-20%), such as caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE).

Antimicrobial activity and chemometric modelling of South African propolis

“…A study conducted by du Toit et al . (), briefly investigated the antimicrobial properties of SA propolis, however, the study focused more on the chemical and anti‐inflammatory properties, rather than the antimicrobial properties. Kumazawa et al .…”

The Susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae to Naturally Derived Selected Classes of Flavonoids

“…These flavonoids are commonly found in propolis (Du Toit et al, 2009). Combinations of flavonoids at different concentrations as well as other components present in the propolis could account for its antimicrobial activity.…”

“…Many reports exist on the antimicrobial activity of flavonoids (Basile et al, 2010;Du Toit et al, 2009;Tanaka et al, 2011). Extracts as well as isolated compounds were tested against a comprehensive panel of micro-organisms.…”

Anti-inflammatory activity of propolis from Maharashtra, India

“…Literature survey further indicates that although the anti-inflammatory activity of Romanian (Olinescu et al, 1991), German (Friesland Brands, 1996), Korean (Park et al, 1996), Cuban (Ledon et al, 1997), Italian (Sosa et al, 2007), Brazilian (Menezes et al, 1999;Moura et al, 2011), South African (Du Toit et al, 2009) and Japanese (Nakamura et al, 2010) propolis is well studied, the potential of Indian propolis is not much explored yet. Further it is seen that improvement of the activity of any of these propolis by fractionation in the solvents of increasing polarity is yet to be reported.…”