Multifactorial aspects of antimicrobial activity of propolis

Abstract

We investigated the antibacterial activity of sub-inhibitory concentrations of ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP), and its effect on the antibacterial activity of some antibiotics. Some clinically isolated Gram-positive strains were used. Moreover, sub-inhibitory concentrations of EEP were used to value its action on some important virulence factors like lipase and coagulase enzymes, and on biofilm formation in Staphylococcus aureus. Our results indicated that EEP had a significant antimicrobial activity towards all tested clinical strains. Adding EEP to antibacterial tested drugs, it drastically increased the antimicrobial effect of ampicillin, gentamycin and streptomycin, moderately the one of chloramphenicol, ceftriaxon and vancomycin, while there was no effect with erithromycin. Moreover, our results pointed out an inhibitory action of EEP on lipase activity of 18 Staphylococcus spp. strains and an inhibitory effect on coagulase of 11 S. aureus tested strains. The same EEP concentrations showed a negative interaction with adhesion and consequent biofilm formation in S. aureus ATCC 6538P.

Antibacterial action of red and green propolis extract in infected root canal

“…Propolis has been studied due several properties, as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and others [11][12][13][14][15][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. The chemical compounds found in propolis showed antimicrobial and tissue tolerance characteristics.…”

“…The 30% red propolis alcoholic extract has a chemical composition of 2.4% flavonoids and 13.2% phenolic compounds; while the of 40% green propolis alcoholic extract shows the composition of 3.52% flavonoids and 3.75% phenolic compounds. The antimicrobial property has been attributed much to the flavonoids [14,26], which are present in propolis with capacity to act on bacteria membrane or cell wall, dissolving the lipophilic part [27,28], causing structural and functional damage [19].…”

“…In this regard, propolis has been investigated for presenting antimicrobial properties, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and others [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Because of its low toxicity, it has been studied as possible intracanal medication [11,12].…”

“…The results indicated that the chemical composition of propolis, especially in relation to the total flavonoid content is dependent on a variety of factors. These flavonoids in propolis act on bacteria´s membrane or cell wall, causing structural and functional damage 19 . Alencar et al 18 determining the minimum inhibitory concentration verified an antimicrobial activity of propolis against S. aureus and S. mutans.…”

Influência da própolis sobre os perfis leucocitário e proteico de camundongos e tempo de fechamento de feridas excisionais limpas e infectadas por Staphylococcus aureus.

“…Possui ação comprovada contra Staphylococcus aureus e S. epidermidis, e age sinergicamente com drogas antibióticas, principalmente inibidores da síntese protéica bacteriana (Fernandes Junior et al, 2005;Liberato et al, 2010). A atividade antimicrobiana da própolis deve-se principalmente à flavonona pinocembrina, ao flavonol galagina e ao éster feniletil do ácido caféico, que atuam inibindo a RNA-polimerase bacteriana (Uzel et al, 2005), e aos flavonóides, ácido caféico, ácido benzóico, ácido cinâmico, que danificam a membrana ou parede celular do microorganismo causando danos funcionais e estruturais (Scazzocchio et al, 2006).…”