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Antioxidant Properties and Phenolic Composition of Greek Propolis Extracts

This study was undertaken to determine the total phenols, total flavonoids, and major phenolic compounds in the polar (methanol, 80% methanol, and aqueous) extracts of propolis collected from the Greek mainland (West Macedonia) and the Greek island, Rhodes. The antioxidant properties of the propolis extracts were also evaluated by using free 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. The results showed that propolis from West Macedonia was found to be the strongest radical scavenger and ferric reducing agent (mean IC50 0.179 and 0.009 mg/ml, respectively). Methanol (mean IC50 0.181 mg/ml) and 80% methanol extracts (mean IC50 0.138 mg/ml) of propolis from West Macedonia showed higher radical scavenging activity than the synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene (mean IC50 0.207 mg/ml), while exhibiting similar levels of reducing activity (IC50 0.0099 mg/ml and 0.0085 mg/ml, respectively) with flavonol quercetin (mean IC50 0.0101 mg/ml). In addition, analysis by high performance liquid chromatography showed that West Macedonia propolis, contained the highest amount of phenolic compounds: phenolic acids (caffeic acid, caffeic acid phenethylester, ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid) and flavonoids (quercetin, galangin, luteolin, apigenin). Caffeic acid (0.639–4.172 mg/g propolis) and galangin (1.317–8.551 mg/g propolis) were found to be the predominant phenolic compounds in these propolis extracts.