INVESTIGATION OF CHEMİCAL CONTENT AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES OF DIFFERENT PLANT SOURCES OF ANATOLIAN PROPOLIS SAMPLES

Abstract

The ethnopharmacological approach combined with chemical and biological methods can be a useful model in the field of pharmacology. One of these approaches, apitherapy, is the use of bee and hive products for therapeutic purposes. Propolis is among the best known of these bee products. The chemical composition of propolis varies according to the local or endemic flora, bee species, geographical origin and season. This study is to determine the antimicrobial activity differences between chestnut and polifloral origin propolis against various pathogenic bacterial species. First of all, the Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was used for the determination of bioactive components known to be responsible for antimicrobial activity. Folin-Ciocalteu method and colorimetric aluminum chloride assay were used to determine the total phenolic (TP) and flavonoid (TF) amounts. 19 different pathogenic microorganisms were selected to test the antimicrobial activity levels of propolis samples with agar well diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. TP and TF values of chestnut propolis (71.06 mg GAE/mL-11.75 mg QE/mL) were significantly higher than polifloral sample (36.84 mg GAE/mL-7.04 mg QE/mL). Chrysin, a flavone derivative, was the most abundant compound in both samples. The MIC values of chestnut propolis ranged from 19.5 to 2500 µg/mL, while the MIC value of polifloral origin propolis was between 39.06 and 5000 µg/mL. The most susceptible strain was Mycobacterium smegmatis for both samples with different concentration. Notably, it was observed that the botanical origins affect the chemical composition of propolis, and this situation can also be effect antibacterial and antifungal activity in respective propolis because of the different amount and diversity of bioactive compounds. Consequently, chestnut propolis is a promising candidate for drug discovery that can be used to treat some infectious diseases, including resistant bacteria.