Propolis

Propolis has been used for centuries by man for their healing and preservative properties. It is a natural, sticky resinous, dark yellow to brown coloured bee product widely used in folk medicine for many years.

It is also known as “bee glue” as honey bees use this to seal their hives and keep the hive free from infections.

• It is composed of bee saliva (which is different to the proteins found in bee venom in bee stings), beeswax, plant pollen and botanical resins.
• Propolis usually contains resins (50%), composed of flavonoids and phenolic acids, waxes (up to 30%), essential oils (10%), pollen (5%) and various organic compounds (5%) such as Fe and Zn, vitamins (B1, B2, B3 and B6), benzoic acid, ketones, lactones, steroids and sugars.
• Propolis chemical composition differs from climate conditions, origin of plant species, time, vegetation of collection areas and type of bee flora.
• More than 300 compounds have been identified in Propolis resin, most notably flavonoids and polyphenols, both demonstrating anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, and the terpenoids which are anti- oxidant and anti-microbial.
• These immunomodulatory, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of Propolis extract accelerate wound healing and helps to prevent mirnor microbial infection.
• Propolis was shown in this study by Rahman et al, to be more effective than honey against certain microorganisms and 100x more potent than honey at inhibiting S. aureus, a common bacteria found on the skin, in vitro (0.35% w/v Propolis extract vs 37.5% w/v for honey).
• Propolis has been shown to be as effective, if not better, than Silver Sulfadiazine cream for wound healing in this study by P Olczyk et al.
• Propolis sourced from Hatay was also been shown to be active against the cold sore virus with similar effectiveness as Acyclovir in this study by A Yildirim et al. The combination of both Propolis and Acyclovir was shown to be superior than either treatments alone.