Propolis is a natural honeybee product resinous, gathered by bees from leaf buds of various tree species. We report here the antitumoral effects of propolis against melanoma and bacteria with efflux pumps.
Melanoma progression analysis showed that propolis significantly reduced tumour growth and increased mice survival compared to control.
Histological studies showed that control mice tumours presented a higher number of mitotic cells compared to propolis-treated mice. This observation was further supported by a reduced proliferative rate of melanoma cells cultured from primary tumours of propolis-treated mice versus controls (p<0.05). Propolis also scavenged 02-° production using the WST-1 test, and induced apoptosis as measured by Hoechst staining, caspase-3 activation, and bax genes expression.
The natural bee product, propolis, seems to be efficient for this purpose. Indeed, tested against different strains gram negative harbouring various efflux pumps, ethanolic extract of Algerian propolis (EEP) showed a high activity.
We concluded that propolis extract must be a promising source of new anticancer and antimicrobial agents.
Mesbah Lahouel