Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Effects of Geopropolis Produced by Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides

Abstract

Stingless bees produce geopropolis, which is popularly described for its medicinal properties, but for which few scientific studies have demonstrated pharmacological effects. The objective of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of the geopropolis of Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides and to evaluate its antioxidant, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. The composition of the hydroethanolic extract of geopropolis (HEG) included di- and trigalloyl and phenylpropanyl heteroside derivatives, flavanones, diterpenes, and triterpenes. HEG showed antioxidant action via the direct capture of free radicals and by inhibiting the levels of oxidative hemolysis and malondialdehyde in human erythrocytes under oxidative stress. HEG also reduced the frequency of gene conversion and the number of mutant colonies of S. cerevisiae. The anti-inflammatory action of HEG was demonstrated by the inhibition of hyaluronidase enzyme activity. In addition, HEG induced cell death in all evaluated gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, and yeasts, including clinical isolates with antimicrobial drug resistance. Collectively, these results demonstrate the potential of M. q. anthidioides geopropolis for the prevention and treatment of various diseases related to oxidative stress, mutagenesis, inflammatory processes, and microbial infections.

Cardanols detected in non-polar propolis extracts from Scaptotrigona aff. postica (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini)

“…The hexane fractions of the geopropolis from Melipona scutellaris, harvested in the Atlantic forest of Bahia State (Northeastern Brazil), exhibited considerable antibacterial activity against Streptococcus mutans, antitumoral activities against human cancer cell lines (Cunha et al, 2013a) and antinociceptive activity (Franchin et al, 2012). The hexane extract of the geopropolis from Melipona mondury, which possesses anacardic acid derivatives as constituents, exhibited antioxidant, antibacterial and antiproliferative activities (Santos et al, 2017a).…”

“…The isolation of the cycloartane triterpene magniferolic acid and 3β-hydroxy-24-methylenecicloartan-26-oic acid, besides the flavonoids 3'-methyl quercetin, sakuranetin and kaempferol 7-methyl ether, indicated the exudates from Eucalyptus citriodora specimens as the resin source for the production of geopropolis from Trigona spinipes Fabricius, native to the Northeast of Brazil (Freitas et al, 2008). Di-and trigalloyl and phenylpropanyl heteroside derivatives, flavanones, diterpenes and triterpenes were detected in the geopropolis from Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides, which exhibited activity in the prevention and treatment of various diseases related to oxidative stress, mutagenesis, inflammatory processes and microbial infections (Santos et al, 2017a). Triterpenoids are the chemical markers for the standardization of geopropolis from the Malaysian stingless bees, Heterotrigona itama (Zhao et al, 2017).…”

“…Phenylpropanoids (Souza et al, 2013), di-and trigalloyl and phenylpropanyl heteroside derivatives (Santos et al, 2017a), hydrolysable tannins (Dutra et al, 2014), terpenes (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes and triterpenes) (Torres et al, 2018;Santos et al, 2017a), fatty acids (Bankova et al, 1998), saponins (Araújo et al, 2015;Dutra et al, 2008), anacardic acid derivatives (Silva et al, 2008;Araújo et al, 2015) and alkaloids (Coelho et al, 2015) have been detected in the propolis from stingless bees. Flavonoids were detected in the geopropolis from the stingless Amazonian bees Melipona interrupta (Silva et al, 2013).…”

“…Qualitative and quantitative differences in the chemical composition of propolis can influence its biological activity (Santos et al, 2017b;Franchin et al, 2012). However, the propolis produced by different species of stingless bees in different regions of the world, exhibit antimicrobial (Cunha et al, 2013a), anticancer, antioxidant (Ferreira et al, 2017), anti-inflammatory (Araújo et al, 2015;Santos et al, 2017aSantos et al, , 2017bSantos et al, , 2017c, gastroprotective (Ribeiro-Junior et al, 2015), and antiviral (Coelho et al, 2015) activities. The geopropolis produced by Melipona fasciculata Smith exhibited antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans (Liberio et al, 2011).…”

Cytotoxicity and Pro-Apoptotic, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Geopropolis Produced by the Stingless Bee Melipona fasciculata Smith

“…Several geopropolis biological properties have been reported, including antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], immunomodulatory [ 15 , 16 ], antimicrobial [ 14 , 17 , 18 ], antileishmanial [ 19 ] and antioxidant activities [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”