Abstract

LOPES, Mélissa; NUNES, Luís F.; FALCAO, Soraia I.  and  VILAS-BOAS, Miguel. Harmonization of standard procedures for propolis analysis. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2017, vol.40, n.spe, pp.281-290. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/RCA16225.

Propolis (bee glue) is a resinous bee hive product used by man since ancient times due to its pharmaceutical properties. The variability of its chemical composition, linked with the floral origin, requires the analysis of several quality parameters. Nevertheless, at the European level, in addition to the inexistence of legal requirements for quality control, there is also a lack of analytical procedures, despite the presence in the literature of several methodologies, which are often not comparable. The International Honey Commission, an worldwide network aiming to implement and develop new analytical methods for the control bee products and the establishment of quality standards, defined as a priority, within the propolis working group, the harmonization of analytical procedures for propolis quality evaluation, particularly in respect to ash, wax (using two alternative methods), balsamic content after extraction with ultrasonic or mechanical agitation as well as the analysis of its phenolic composition through the assessment of total phenolics, flavones/flavonols and flavanones/di-hydroflavonols. This collaborative study was engaged by 15 entities, including 14 laboratories and an international company working with propolis. According to the results obtained in our laboratory it is possible to draw a first evaluation on the applied methods, in particular the simplicity on the protocol implementation, with exception for the wax content, which proved to be laborious and non-adapted for routine analysis. Nevertheless, the wax values from both methodologies seems to agree, independently of its level in the samples. For the extraction procedure (balsamic content), the samples showed values between 43% and 70%, independent of the use of mechanical stirring or sonication, which shows the advantage of this second method, which enables a significant reduction in labor time, regardless of the absolute value. Overall, the results found for the tested protocols, for the different parameters, revealed a constant performance, besides de natural oscillation associated with the floral origin.

Keywords : Propolis; harmonization of methodologies; International Honey Commission; collaborative study.

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