Abstract
The main purpose of our study was to demonstrate the antioxidant properties of novel propolis nano-formulation, incorporated in spherical chitosan nanoparticles. The electrochemical methods (cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry) were successfully applied to propolis extract and nanopropolis formulation, confirming that the content in phenolic acids and flavonoids is responsible for the antioxidant activity of propolis. The quantitative and qualitative results are also supported by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy.
Highlights
Propolis, or “bee glue” is a natural product, sticky and resinous, resulting from a mixture of bees’ salivary secretion and exudates from plants, as a method of defense against microbes and moulds
3.1 Morphological characterization of chitosan/propolis nanoparticles dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements were applied in order to evaluate the average particle size and zeta potential, the results being presented in Figure 1(a, b)
The present results are supported by other researches in this field, which demonstrated that the production of nanoparticles by ionic gelation results in smaller particles for higher amounts of cross-linker, providing sufficient protonation of chitosan for interaction with TPP [39,40]
Summary
“bee glue” is a natural product, sticky and resinous, resulting from a mixture of bees’ salivary secretion and exudates from plants, as a method of defense against microbes and moulds. The biological and pharmacological properties of propolis are well documented, including antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antioxidant activities (among others) and reported by many researchers [1,2,3,4]. The complex chemical composition of propolis extracts includes high content of active compounds such as phenolic acids and flavonoids [2, 5], both being considered as secondary metabolites. Phenolic compounds activity is related to their disrupting action on the bacterium cell wall, interfering with ATP molecules and altering its membrane potential which results in the bacterium’s death [5]. The antioxidant activity of propolis has been traditionally correlated to the amount of phenolic compounds in extracts, the mechanism of action being related to the ability to scavenge the free radicals involved in oxidative stress [6]. It was previously demonstrated that propolis collected from tempered geographic areas is rich in flavonoids and aromatic acids, while propolis from tropical area usually presents high phenolic acids content [7]
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