Antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, and cytotoxic properties of various Brazilian propolis extracts

Abstract

Propolis is known for its biological properties and its preparations have been continuously investigated in an attempt to solve the problem of their standardization, an issue that limits the use of propolis in food and pharmaceutical industries. The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, and cytotoxic effects of extracts of red, green, and brown propolis from different regions of Brazil, obtained by ethanolic and supercritical extraction methods. We found that propolis extracts obtained by both these methods showed concentration-dependent antioxidant activity. The extracts obtained by ethanolic extraction showed higher antioxidant activity than that shown by the extracts obtained by supercritical extraction. Ethanolic extracts of red propolis exhibited up to 98% of the maximum antioxidant activity at the highest extract concentration. Red propolis extracts obtained by ethanolic and supercritical methods showed the highest levels of antimicrobial activity against several bacteria. Most extracts demonstrated antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. None of the extracts analyzed showed activity against Escherichia coli or Candida albicans. An inhibitory effect of all tested ethanolic extracts on the growth of Trypanosoma cruzi Y strain epimastigotes was observed in the first 24 h. However, after 96 h, a persistent inhibitory effect was detected only for red propolis samples. Only ethanolic extracts of red propolis samples R01Et.B2 and R02Et.B2 showed a cytotoxic effect against all four cancer cell lines tested (HL-60, HCT-116, OVCAR-8, and SF-295), indicating that red propolis extracts have great cytotoxic potential. The biological effects of ethanolic extracts of red propolis revealed in the present study suggest that red propolis can be a potential alternative therapeutic treatment against Chagas disease and some types of cancer, although high activity of red propolis in vitro needs to be confirmed by future in vivo investigations.

Propolis Affects Pseudomonas aeruginosa Growth, Biofilm Formation, eDNA Release and Phenazine Production: Potential Involvement of Polyphenols

“…Propolis is a complex mixture of components with a broad spectrum of activities, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic effects [14][15][16]. A selected group of compounds, occurring in propolis and known for their biological activities, were analyzed by means of HPLC-ESI-MS.…”

Chemical composition, immunostimulatory, cytotoxic and antiparasitic activities of the essential oil from Brazilian red propolis

“…Due to the variety of chemical compounds of BRP incorporated within the resin mixture, especially phenolic compounds, many biological activities have been reported like antioxidant [ 2 , 8 ], antibacterial [ 9 , 10 ], fungicide [ 11 ], antiparasitic [ 10 , 12 ], antineoplasic [ 13 , 14 ], anti-caries [ 15 ], cytotoxic [ 2 , 10 ], anti-inflamatory [ 16 , 17 ], antinociceptive [ 18 ] and was also beneficial to the wound healing process [ 19 ].…”

“…As aforementioned, most of the previous studies describing the biological activities of BRP uses ethanol as the extraction solvent, and the extraction method influences directly the yield and selectivity for some compounds [ 10 , 28 ]. Volatile compounds like those found in essential oils are in low concentrations in propolis, but play an important role by contributing to propolis pleasant aroma and its biological activities.…”

Serum Antioxidant Parameters are Significantly Increased in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus after Consumption of Chinese Propolis: A Randomized Controlled Trial Based on Fasting Serum Glucose Level

“…Propolis is rich in active components such as polyphenols (including flavonoids), terpenoids, sugars, hydrocarbons, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and other bioactive constituents [ 1 – 3 ]. Propolis has been used for many years in folk medicine because it possesses various biological properties, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiparasite, anticancer, and antiinflammatory activities [ 4 – 8 ].…”