Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of propolis from Tamil Nadu zone

Propolis, a natural product honeybee, has been used for thousands of years in folk medicine for several purposes. In this work, we have investigated the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of propolis collected from west zone of India that is, Gujarat. The antimicrobial activity was done by agar diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans and Asparagus niger. Ethanolic extracts of sample showed high antibacterial activity against Gram-positive (B. subtilis) but least activity against Gram-negative bacteria (P. aeruginosa and E. coli). The yeast C. albicans showed the moderate zone of inhibition where as A. niger did not show any activity. Pet. ether and chloroform extracts did not show any activity. The maximum zone of inhibition of the ethanolic extracts of propolis (EEP) was found against the B. subtilis at the conc. 200 mg/ml where as the least was in the 40% methanolic extracts. The free radical scavenging effect of propolis as well as of vitamin C in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical system was determined. The free radical scavenging activity of EEP was 70.96% and 72.97% respectively in the concentration range of 100 mcg at the difference of 30 min and 1hr respectively. The result of free radical scavenging effect of vitamin C was 94.7% at 100 mcg and 93.4% at 10 mcg. The methanolic extracts showed the least free radical scavenging when compared to the 40% methanolic and ethanolic extract of the propolis.