Red Propolis as a Source of Antimicrobial Phytochemicals: Extraction Using High-Performance Alternative Solvents

Abstract

Propolis is a resinous material rich in flavonoids and involved in several biological activities such as antimicrobial, fungicide, and antiparasitic functions. Conventionally, ethanolic solutions are used to obtain propolis phytochemicals, which restrict their use in some cultures. Given this, we developed an alcohol-free high-performance extractive approach to recover antibacterial and antioxidants phytochemicals from red propolis. Thus, aqueous-solutions of ionic liquids (IL) and eutectic solvents were used and then tested for their total flavonoids, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities. The surface-responsive technique was applied regarding some variables, namely, the time of extraction, the number of extractions, and cavitation power (W), to optimize the process (in terms of higher yields of flavonoids and better antioxidant activity). After that, four extractions with the same biomass (repetitions) using 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [C6mim]Cl, under the operational conditions fixed at 3.3 min and 300 W, were able to recover 394.39 ± 36.30 mg RuE. g−1 of total flavonoids, with total antioxidant capacity evaluated up to 7595.77 ± 5.48 μmol TE. g−1dried biomass, besides inhibiting the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enteritidis bacteria (inhibition halo of 23.0 ± 1.0 and 15.7 ± 2.1, respectively). Aiming at the development of new technologies, the antimicrobial effect also presented by [C6mim]Cl may be appealing, and future studies are required to understand possible synergistic actions with propolis phytochemicals. Thereby, we successfully applied a completely alcohol-free method to obtain antimicrobials phytochemicals and highly antioxidants from red propolis, representing an optimized process to replace the conventional extracts produced until now.

Characterization of Ikaria Heather Honey by Untargeted Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics and Melissopalynological Analysis

“…6-Methoxyluteolin 7-rhamnoside (tR = 11.54, with m/z 462.1163, Table 1) is a flavonoid reported in Brazilian red propolis (Silva-Beltran et al, 2021;do Nascimento et al, 2019), known especially for its biological potential (dos Santos et al, 2021). Isophorone (tR = 7.74, with m/z 138.1045, Table 1), a norisoprenoid compound, was identified in Anama honey samples while its MS spectrum and MS/MS fragments are presented in Figure 6.…”

The beeswax processing by‐product: a potential antibacterial ingredient for food and nutraceutical applications

“…Propolis is known since ancient times as a natural remedy for several diseases, particularly for the treatment of mild upper‐respiratory tract infections (Kuropatnicki et al ., 2013). Thanks expecially to its content in bioactive flavonoids, propopolis is effective as antibacterial, antiviral, anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant agent (Pahlavani et al ., 2020; dos Santos et al ., 2021; Nichitoi et al ., 2021). Also, the other components such as phytosterols can contribute to these properties (He et al ., 2022).…”

Do ultrasonic field effects upon the polyphenolics profile of propolis extracts improve their antioxidant and antimicrobial activity?

“…Aiming to replace the volatile organic solvents, dos Santos et al [34] used UAE to test the transfer of bioactive compounds from red Brazilian propolis into a mixture of ionic liquids with 10 % eutectic co-solvents. A 20 kHz ultrasonic horn was used for 5 min at 400 W, to homogenize the sample of propolis either with 70 and 95 % ethanol, or with 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride in 10 % water, in three successive extractions.…”