Evaluation of the Potential of Brazilian Red Propolis Extracts: An Analysis of the Chemical Composition and Biological Properties

Abstract

The optimized extraction process of natural matrices such as propolis that results in extracts with significant compounds has been one of the main needs of the industry. The aim of this work was to analyze the content of the active components of Brazilian red propolis extracts previously treated with ultrasound, as well as to evaluate in vitro their performance regarding antioxidant capacity and against bacteria and tumor cells. The results of the chromatographic analysis showed the influence of ultrasound treatment for higher yields of formononetin and kaempferol. However, just a higher content of these two components was not enough to interfere with higher concentrations of phenolic compounds and flavonoids among the extracts. The ten extracts obtained showed activity against two bacterial strains, and eight of them showed >70% cytotoxicity against five neoplastic cell lines. These results demonstrated the influence of ultrasound technology as a pretreatment in obtaining the ethanolic extracts of propolis, increasing the possibility of the applicability of Brazilian red propolis in different areas.

Keywords

• red propolis
• formononetin
• kaempferol
• bioactive compounds
• cytotoxicity