A Preliminary Study of the Absorption and Metabolism of Temperate Propolis by Human Subjects

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Author Info

Abdullah Alotaibi Abdulmalik Alqarni Adel Alghamdi Dave Watson James Fearnley Mohammed Al Rofaidi

Corresponding Author

Dave Watson
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

A B S T R A C T

Temperate propolis is collected by bees from the sticky secretions produced by the buds of poplar species. It is used to coat and seal the hive thus protecting against infections. Extensive research indicates that propolis has strong anti-protozoal activity. There have been some large clinical trials testing propolis against a variety of conditions but despite there is no information on whether or not the active components in propolis are absorbed by humans. In order to answer this question, a small study was carried out in order to determine whether or not propolis components could be detected in the urine of 5 human subjects taking a small dose of propolis tincture. In two of the subjects, levels of several of the flavonoids present in the propolis tincture many times above the baseline levels were detected following hydrolysis of the urine samples with a glucuronidase/sulfatase. Analysis of urine samples prior to hydrolysis indicated the presence of glucuronides and sulfates of the main flavonoids in propolis. Flavonoid absorption occurred to some degree in all subjects, apparent lower levels of flavonoid absorption in 3 out of five subjects might indicate genuine differences in level of absorption between subjects.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 04, May 2020
Accepted: Mon 18, May 2020
Published: Wed 27, May 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Dave Watson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JFNM.2020.01.06