Propolis is a plant-derived substance collected by stingless bee’s product from various sources, including plant resins with combination of bee’s saliva and wax. Propolis has been used to treat several diseases since ancient times and it is an important source of bioactive natural compound and drug derivatives. The aim of this study was to evaluate biological and chemical profiles of ethanolic extracts from propolis produced by Heterotrigona itama (HI), Geniotrigona thoracica (GT), Lepidotrigona terminate (LT), and Tretrigona apicalis (TA). Cytotoxicity activity was evaluated by using 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-YI)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay against three cancer cell lines. H. itama extracts showed the highest cytotoxicity effect with   of 5 µg/mL, 4 µg/mL and 8 µg/mL for MDA-MB-231, SK-UT-1 and HeLa, respectively. Other species only possessed moderate to weak cytotoxicity effect against tested cells. Phytochemical screening was carried out by thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis and visualized by derivatives agents in order to detect the presence of terpenoids, steroids, saponins, essential oils and phenol. It  was found that H. itama (HI) possessed the highest antioxidant activity with the lowest  of 30 µg/mL with percetange of inhibition at 85.69 % evaluated by (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) DPPH scaveging assay. In conclusion, bee species was considered as important factor in selecting the quality of propolis. It was found that H. itama produced the most active extract compared to other species. The data obtained from this study would be the basis for further investigation on therapeutic application especially for cytotoxic activity, antioxidant and phytochemical screenings for four Malaysian stingless bees of propolis.

Propolis is a gum-like product that collected by bees from plants and it varies in colour range from light yellow to dark brown. The chemical composition of propolis depends on various factors such as vegetation, season and environmental conditions of the sample collection. The aim of the study was to determine the chemical profile and antioxidant properties of crude methanol extract of Geniotrigona thoracica propolis from five localities, namely Besut (BST), Dungun (DGN), Lundang (LDG), Tanah Merah (TM) and Gua Musang (GM). Phytochemical screening by thin layer chromatography (TLC) showed the presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, essential oils and unsaturated and aromatic compounds. The extracts displayed different characteristics of chemical profile that varied from each other. The antioxidant properties of extracts were evaluated based on total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging activity. Propolis from Gua Musang (GM) exhibited the highest total phenolic content with 23.43 ± 0.50 mg GAE/g extract while propolis from Besut (BST) exhibited the highest total flavonoids content with 17.22 ± 0.16 mg QE/g extract and showed the lowest IC50 with 53 µg/mL for DPPH radical scavenging activities. As a result, Geniotrigona thoracica from Besut (BST) could be considered as a good source of antioxidant due to its antioxidant properties.

Propolis is a natural substance produced by the bees to protect their hive. The present work reports the utilization of chemical profiling and fingerprinting combined with multivariate analysis for discrimination of the geographical origin of Malaysian stingless bee propolis. High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) has been performed to profile the chemical composition of Geniotrigona thoracica propolis from different localities in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia namely Besut, Terengganu (BST), Dungun, Terengganu (DGN), Lundang, Kelantan (LDG), Tanah Merah, Kelantan (TM) and Gua Musang, Kelantan (GM). The obtained HPTLC profiles showed the presence of flavonoids, phenolics and terpenoids in propolis. The chemical fingerprinting was obtained through Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Chemometric analysis on FTIR dataset using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) have classified the propolis into three major groups according to their sampling locations. Chemical fingerprinting analysis on the functional group via FTIR and chemometric revealed that the locations of propolis have direct correlation with the chemical composition, thus affecting the biological activities of propolis.  Both chemical marker and chemical fingerprinting analysis are important tools in propolis standardization.