Evaluation of propolis. I. Evaluation of Brazilian and Chinese propolis by enzymatic and physico-chemical methods.

To establish a method of evaluating propolis, the effects of the ethanol and water extracts from various collecting of propolis from different countries and plant sources on hyaluronidase activity were investigated along with their absorption spectra and specific absorbance (E(1%)1 cm value). The relations between the hyaluronidase inhibitory activities of these extracts and their E(1%)1 cm values were also examined, and the following was found: 1) the enzyme inhibitory activities of the ethanol extracts were more potent than those of the water extracts; 2) the enzyme inhibitory activities of the ethanol extracts from Araucaria angustifolia (BERT.) O. KTZE were low compared with those of other ethanol extracts; 3) the enzyme inhibitory activities of all the ethanol extracts correlated excellently with their E(1%)1 cm values, but in the water extracts, they decreased with increase in E(1%)1 cm values; 4) the water extracts of Chinese propolis from Hebei, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Zhejiang Provinces inhibited weakly compared with that from Brazilian and other Chinese propolis; 5) the shapes of absorption bands of the propolis extracts and the E(1%)1 cm values were approximately dependent on the place or the plant source from which propolis was collected. These experimental results indicated that, for the exact evaluation of propolis, the enzymatic method, measuring the hyaluronidase inhibitory activity, was superior to the physicochemical method.