Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Biosciences Institute, UNESP, 18618-000 Botucatu, SP, Brazil.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2011 Jan 27;133(2):253-60. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.10.032. Epub 2010 Oct 21.
Propolis has plenty of biological and pharmacological properties and its mechanisms of action have been widely investigated in the last years, using different experimental models in vitro and in vivo. Researchers have been interested in the investigation of isolated compounds responsible for propolis action; however, there is lack of clinical research on the effects of propolis.
Since propolis-containing products have been marketed and humans have used propolis for different purposes, the goal of this review is to discuss the potential of propolis for the development of new drugs, by comparing data from the literature that suggest candidate areas for the establishment of drugs against tumors, infections, allergy, diabetes, ulcers and with immunomodulatory action.
The efficacy of propolis in different protocols in vitro and in vivo suggests its therapeutic properties, but before establishing a strategy using this bee product, it is necessary to study: (a) the chemical nature of the propolis sample. (b) Propolis efficacy should be compared to well-established parameters, e.g. positive or negative controls in the experiments. Moreover, possible interactions between propolis and other medicines should be investigated in humans as well. (c) Clinical investigation is needed to evaluate propolis potential in patients or healthy individuals, to understand under which conditions propolis may promote health. Data point out the importance of this research field not only for the readers and researchers in the scientific community waiting for further clarification on the potential of propolis but also for the pharmaceutical industry that looks for new drugs.
蜂胶具有丰富的生物学和药理学特性，近年来，研究人员使用不同的体外和体内实验模型广泛研究了其作用机制。研究人员一直对负责蜂胶作用的分离化合物的研究感兴趣；然而，蜂胶的作用缺乏临床研究。
由于含有蜂胶的产品已经上市，并且人类已经将蜂胶用于不同的用途，因此，本综述的目的是通过比较文献中的数据来讨论蜂胶开发新药的潜力，这些数据表明蜂胶在抗肿瘤、抗感染、抗过敏、糖尿病、溃疡和免疫调节作用等方面具有潜在的应用价值。
蜂胶在不同的体外和体内方案中的疗效表明了其治疗特性，但在使用这种蜜蜂产品制定策略之前，有必要研究：（a）蜂胶样品的化学性质。（b）蜂胶的疗效应与既定参数进行比较，例如实验中的阳性或阴性对照。此外，还应在人体中研究蜂胶与其他药物之间的可能相互作用。（c）需要进行临床研究，以评估蜂胶在患者或健康个体中的潜力，了解在何种条件下蜂胶可能促进健康。这些数据不仅指出了该研究领域对科学共同体中的读者和研究人员的重要性，他们正在等待进一步澄清蜂胶的潜力，而且对制药行业也很重要，因为他们正在寻找新药。
