Determination of Major Active Components in the Iranian (Kurdistan) Propolis Extract by HPLC

Propolis, as a natural product have several biological benefits including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial as well as anticancer properties. Its application extensively depends on its composition and the concentrations of the major active components. The aim of, this study was to evaluate the concentrations of chrysin, quercetin and, caffeic acid as three active components, in the Iranian propolis using UV-HPLC method.

Three different samples of propolis were collected from Saral and Avalan regions (Kurdistan Province, Iran) in spring 2017. To separate and measure the concentrations of the three components, the samples were extracted by using an ethanolic solution (80%) and subsequently analyzed by the UV-HPLC system with an isocratic mode at a flow rate of 1ml/min for 20 min and ultraviolet detection at λmax 260 or 310 nm. For evaluation of the quality control of the assay, the linearity and detection limits of the method were calculated.

Chrysin was not detected in our samples. The average concentrations of quercetin and caffeic acid were 65.425 and 27.498 µg/g, respectively.

For the first time, we reported accurately the concentrations of three active components of Iranian propolis which many of propolis's beneficial effects have been attributed to them.