A Study of Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of Bee Products: Propolis, Pollen and Honey Samples

Abstract

Background: The medicinal use of products made by bees is called apitherapy. Apitherapy has become popular as an alternative treatment in recent years. Pharmaceutical properties of bee products depend on biological activities such as antioxidant and antibacterial activities.
Objective: This study was undertaken to comparatively evaluate the bee products for their antioxidant and antibacterial activities against Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157: H7 and Salmonella Enteritidis.
Methods: The agar well diffusion method was used for the determination of antibacterial effect of bee products. The samples were evaluated for antioxidant capacity by ELISA using Total Antioxidant Status (TAS) assay kit.
Results: All tested honey samples exhibited a measurable antibacterial activity against all of the tested bacteria with different values. Also, two of the propolis extract showed inhibitory effect only against L. monocytogenes. Four pollen extracts inhibited the growth of S. aureus and L. monocytogenes with different values. The propolis extracts showed the highest antioxidant capacity.
Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that the antibacterial and antioxidant properties of the bee product of Turkey origin seems to be promising to be used for food preservation and prevention of human health against diseases and disorders. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2018;32(2):116-122]
Key words: Antibacterial activity, antioxidant property, bee products