Identification of the Plant Origin of the Botanical Biomarkers of Mediterranean type Propolis

Abstract

Propolis is a honeybee product which bees produce by collecting resins from various botanical sources. The chemical composition of propolis is directly dependant on the availability of resinous plant materials in different geographic regions. This study was undertaken to evaluate the resinous plant sources used by bees to produce Mediterranean type propolis. Although this propolis type has already been the subject of numerous studies, its major botanical source had not yet been identified. In this study, using GC-MS analysis, we identify the resin of the common cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, as the major plant source of the characteristic diterpene fingerprint profile of Mediterranean propolis.

Propolis

“…Examples of plant species that serve as botanical source for tropical propolis include Baccharis species, predominantly Baccharis dracunculifolia DC (Brazil, green propolis), Dalbergia species (Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, red propolis), 8 Clusia major and Clusia minor (Venezuela, Cuba), Macaranga tanarius (Pacific region), 9 Cistus species (Tunisia), Ambrosia deltoidea (Sonora desert [United States, Mexico]), Larrea nitida Cav. 14 The plant origin of the most widespread propolis types and their major constituents (vide infra) are shown in Table 1. 3,13 The plant origin of propolis is not always certain.…”

Insight on Propolis from Mediterranean Countries: Chemical Composition, Biological Activities and Application Fields

“…Mono-and sesquiterpenyl esters of substituted benzoic acids were also detected [ferutinin (38), teferin (39), 2-acetoxy-6-p-methoxybenzoyljaeschkeanadiol (40) and 2-acetoxy-6p-hydroxybenzoyljaeschkeanadiol (41)] ( Figure 4). [70] In 2012, [14] concluded that the diterpenic profile of the previous studied Maltese propolis was similar to the profile of the resin of Cupressus sempervirens and consider that cypress is the principal plant source of this propolis. Later on, [71] have reported totarol (36) to be the most abundant diterpenoid in Maltese propolis.…”

“…Boisard et al [40,41] declared that phenolic acids esters [benzyl caffeate (12) and prenyl caffeate (13)] and flavonoids [pinobanksin-3acetate (4), pinocembrin (3), chrysin (2), and galangin (9)] were the most abundant constituents of French propolis. Caffeic acid (5), p-coumaric acid (6), ferulic acid (7) and isoferulic acid (14) were also detected in those propolis samples. The study of Chasset et al [42] was in concordance with [40,41] finding about the composition of French propolis, where they investigated propolis from different areas in France through high-performance thin-layer chromatography and mass spectrometry (HPTLC/MS).…”

“…[9,10] Pacific propolis from Okinawa, Taiwan, Indonesia (Macaranga tanarius) is rich in C-prenyl-flavanones. [9,10] Mediterranean propolis from Sicily, Greece and Malta in which the plant source belongs to the Cupressaceae family, [14] present the diterpenes (mainly acids of labdane type) as the major compounds. [9,15,16,17] The chemical composition of propolis from other Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, France, and Spain) was also previously reviewed.…”

A simple and inexpensive procedure for detection of a marker of Brazilianalecrimpropolis

“…Amongst the propolis constituents, resin derived from plants provides the characteristics of texture, colour, and odour, as well as the complex chemical composition of the propolis and its biological activity. The chemical composition of propolis varies widely according to geographic and floristic factors (Bankova, de Castro, & Marcucci, 2000;Popova et al, 2012;Salatino, Fernandes-Silva, Righi, & Salatino, 2011).…”