Abstract
Long-term fungal infections that are difficult to treat require new substances for their prevention, treatment, or as adjuvants during antibiotic therapy. Propolis is a very promising source of natural substances that show a wide range of pharmacological properties, including antifungal activity against various fungal strains. The purpose of the literature review was to summarize recent studies (PubMed, Scopus) on progress in evaluating the antifungal activity of chemically defined propolis extracts. During the selection of studies, only those with results of antifungal activity expressed as minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and/or minimal fungicidal concentration (MFC) were analyzed. Moreover, plant, animal and environmental factors influencing the chemical composition of propolis are discussed. Mechanisms of antifungal activity of propolis extracts and research trends in the aspect of developing new therapies and the assessment of drug interactions are indicated. The review of the research results shows that there is great progress in the definition of propolis extracts. After comparing the MIC/MFC values, it was assessed that propolis extracts offer a wide range of activity not only against pathogenic Candida strains but also against risky molds; however, the strength of this activity is varied.
Highlights
Published: 4 February 2022Propolis is defined as a natural resinous mixture which is produced by honey bees (Apis mellifera) using secretions collected from trees and herbaceous plants or resins, mucilage, gums from the flowers, fruits, branches, stem, and leaves of different plants [1,2,3,4]
The antifungal activities of propolis extracts are most frequently tested in vitro on Candida albicans in comparison with C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and strains of molds
Based on the review of the bibliography, it was found that in recent years studies have focused mainly on the assessment of the susceptibility of Candida albicans strains to ethanolic extracts of various propolis
Summary
Propolis (common names: bee glue, hive dross) is defined as a natural resinous mixture which is produced by honey bees (Apis mellifera) using secretions collected from trees and herbaceous plants or resins, mucilage, gums from the flowers, fruits, branches, stem, and leaves of different plants [1,2,3,4]. Microorganisms 2022, 10, 364 the scientific problems that has received a lot of attention is the origin of propolis influence of geographic and environmental factors on its chemical composition [1 on pharmacological activities [8,9,10]. Propolis has shown mainly antifungal [8,9,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22], antibacterial [10,19,2 to increase This continuing trend is consistent with the need to use products of natural antiviral [20,25,26,27,28,29], antiparasitic [5,20,30,31], anti-inflammatory [17,32–3 origin, in treatment and in the prevention of numerous diseases. Gives to a review published research results in this area
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