More Insight into the Chemical Composition of Greek Propolis; Differences and Similarities with Turkish Propolis

Abstract

We aimed to determine the differences and similarities between Greek and Turkish propolis with respect to their chemical composition given that the two countries have many similarities in floral biodiversity. We observed that: a) Greek propolis is different from the European-type propolis, having a high terpene content; therefore we can definitely characterize it as a Mediterranean type; b) the Turkish propolis collected along the coast line of the Aegean Sea is similiar to the examined Greek propolis; c) the remaining Turkish samples, originating from the European part of Turkey, were found to be similiar to the European-type propolis, having a high flavonoid content. Finally, especially two compounds, beta-elemene and totarol, were found in Greek samples in quite high amounts that are thought to have important biological properties.

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

“…In ethanolic extract of propolis from Greece, it was reported a significant amount of flavonoids [mainly chrysin (2), pinocembrin (3), pinobanksin-3-O-acetate (4), galangin (9), and apigenin (15)] (Figure 1), and low amounts of phenolic acids and their esters. [17,64,[72][73][74][75] Terpenes [mainly totarol (36), isopimaric acid (42), βelemene (43), agathadiol (44), pimaric acid (34), isoagatholal (45) and isocupressic acid (32)] ( Figure 4) were also found with the exception of propolis from Nigrita that had high amounts of flavonoids and low amounts of phenolic acids and their esters, and without diterpenic compounds. [74] In addition, in the recent study of Kasiotis et al [76] it was not reported the presence of diterpenes in samples originating from Crete, Kos, and Amorgos (Greece), in the opposite of the finding of Popova et al, [75] where they have reported a relative high amount of this group of compounds in Crete samples.…”

“…In other countries of Southern European Coast, such as Turkey, chemical composition of propolis has widely investigated by several authors. Quercetin (26), rutin (48), chrysin (2), pinocembrin (3), pinostrobin chalcone (49) and pinobanksin (1) and its derivatives were the most repeated flavonoids found in various simples of propolis from Turkey using different method of analysis such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with a linear ion trap-high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry system (UHPLC-LTQ/orbitrap/MS/MS), [73,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] while Erdogan et al [96] have reported the presence of other flavonoids such as gallocatechin (50), epigallocatechin (51) and myricetin (52) in Anatolian propolis submitted to a pressurized liquid extraction. Other authors did not report the presence of flavonoids in Turkish propolis originating from Hatay, Ankara-Kazan and Mugla-Marmaris, [97 -100] at the same time they declared that terpenes such as αand β-eudesmol, isopimaric acid (42), dehydroabietic acid (53) and abietic acid (54) ( Figure 4) were included in the bioactive compounds of tested propolis samples.…”

“…[79,[81][82][83]95,99,106,107] Regarding terpenes, an amount ranging between 0.15 and 27.47 % was revealed in Turkish propolis. [73,79,108] To be noted that the presence of diterpenes could not depend on the nearness to the Mediterranean Sea, because [108] described a typical poplar propolis from Izmir (Eagean Sea belonging to the Mediterranean basin) and Mediterranean type of propolis from Adana (Mediterranean Sea). Nevertheless Çelemli et al [73] reported relatively high amounts of totarol (diterpene) in propolis from the Aegean region of Turkey.…”

Individual and social immune mechanisms of the honey bee (Apis mellifera)

“…Kit pszczeli zw. propolisem, w skład którego wchodzą substancje żywiczne i balsamiczne oraz związki biologicznie czynne, pyłek, wosk, enzymy trawienne śliny robotnic oraz mechaniczne domieszki, jest wykorzystywany głównie do uszczelniania gniazda oraz polerowania komórek plastra (14,39). Aktywność przeciwbakteryjna propolisu związana jest z występowaniem w jego składzie flawonoidów: ganalginy, chryzyny i pinocembryny, a także hydroksykwasów i flawononów oraz kwasów tłuszczowych i pochodnych fenolokwasów.…”

“…Kwas kawowy, flawonony i flawony, wspólnie ze swoimi estrami, spowalniają rozwój bakterii pochodzenia zwierzęcego i roślinnego, które zanieczyszczają pyłek i nektar oraz wodę przynoszoną przez pszczoły zbieraczki do ula (38,43). Pszczoły oblepiają kitem wlot do ula, co stanowi także mechaniczną barierę przed wnikaniem patogenów do gniazda oraz potencjalnie przeciwdziała ich rozwojowi wewnątrz (14,45,85,87). Najnowsze badania udowadniają, że propolis ma również wpływ na ekspresję genów związanych z układem odpornościowym.…”