Manley-Harris M, Grainger M N C, Peters L M, Te Rire-McNeil S T
School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
Fitoterapia. 2025 Mar;181:106412. doi: 10.1016/j.fitote.2025.106412. Epub 2025 Feb 3.
New Zealand's unique indigenous flora has evolved due to its geographical isolation in the Southern Hemisphere. In the 250 years, since European colonisation commenced, much indigenous flora has been replaced by plants largely of Northern Hemisphere origin including poplar species and pine. There are however still a few large areas of principally native flora. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) was introduced to New Zealand in 1839, so has no evolutionary link to the New Zealand indigenous flora. New Zealand propolis from areas in which honeybees have access to poplar and other Northern Hemisphere species is similar in chemical profile to Northern Hemisphere propolis. However, when honeybees were placed in an extensive area of native flora, Te Urewera in the North Island,the chemical profile of propolis produced was vastly different. This "endemic" propolis was characterised by the presence of diterpenoids in contrast to the flavonoids found in poplar-type propolis. These diterpenoids, isocupressic acid, acetyl isocupressic acid, manool, torulosal, communic acid and ferruginol, were characterised by GC-MS and by NMR spectroscopy of the isolated compounds. The "endemic" propolis has commonality with propolis of the Mediterranean-type as well as some Brazilian propolis. Investigation of the bioactivity of a sample of the "endemic" propolis revealed good antioxidant behaviour with a TEAC of 1481 mg g, dose-dependent inhibition of mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity, inhibition of superoxide production with an IC of 262 μg mL and inhibition of methicillin resistant and methicillin sensitive S. aureus. Much of this bioactivity can be attributed to the presence of the diterpenoids.
新西兰独特的本土植物群是由于其在南半球的地理隔离而进化形成的。自欧洲殖民开始的250年间，许多本土植物群已被主要源自北半球的植物所取代，包括杨树品种和松树。然而，仍然有一些主要是本土植物群的大片区域。蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）于1839年被引入新西兰，因此与新西兰本土植物群没有进化联系。来自蜜蜂能够接触到杨树和其他北半球物种地区的新西兰蜂胶，其化学特征与北半球蜂胶相似。然而，当蜜蜂被放置在北岛的蒂乌雷韦拉大片本土植物区时，所产蜂胶的化学特征却大不相同。这种“地方特色”蜂胶的特点是含有二萜类化合物，这与杨树型蜂胶中的黄酮类化合物形成对比。这些二萜类化合物，异海松酸、乙酰异海松酸、海松醇、torulosal、communic酸和铁杉醇，通过气相色谱-质谱联用仪（GC-MS）以及对分离出的化合物进行核磁共振光谱分析进行了表征。这种“地方特色”蜂胶与地中海型蜂胶以及一些巴西蜂胶有共同之处。对一份“地方特色”蜂胶样品的生物活性研究表明，其具有良好的抗氧化性能，TEAC值为1481 mg/g，对线粒体脱氢酶活性有剂量依赖性抑制作用，对超氧化物生成的抑制IC50为262 μg/mL，对耐甲氧西林和甲氧西林敏感的金黄色葡萄球菌均有抑制作用。这种生物活性很大程度上可归因于二萜类化合物的存在。
