TOTAL FLAVONOIDS AND PHENOLIC CONTENTS OF STICKY AND HARD PROPOLIS FROM 10 SPECIES OF INDO-MALAYAN STINGLESS BEES

Abstract

The present works aimed to identify the total flavonoids content (TFC), total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activities of sticky and hard propolis of 10 species of Indo-Malayan stingless bee’s namely Heterotrigona itama (H. itama), Geniotrigona thoracica (G. thoracica), Homotrigona aliceae (H. aliceae), Homotrigona fimbriata (H. fimbriata), Tetrigona apicalis (T. apicalis), Tetrigona vidua (T. vidua), Tetrigona peninsularis (T. peninsularis), Lophotrigona canifrons (L. canifrons), Tetrigona melanoleuca (T. melanoleuca), and Tetrogona binghami (T. binghami). The ethanolic extracts of these propolis (EEP) were prepared and analysed for the determination of TFC using aluminium chloride method, TPC and antioxidant activity using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging assay system. The sticky propolis showed 91% of TFC and 49% of TPC higher than the hard propolis. Interestingly, the sticky propolis had stronger antioxidant activities than hard propolis for all species. The highest antioxidant activities were found in sticky propolis of H. itama which is 85% of DPPH degradation while the lowest antioxidant activity was found in the hard propolis of L. conifrons which is 5% of DPPH degradation. In conclusion, the data gathered in this study revealed that propolis from all 10 types of stingless bees’ species are biologically active. The selection of propolis for further development can be based on its biological activities, which vary according to the species of stingless bees.