Investigation of antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects of royal jelly and chestnut honey mixture

Bee products have been used in both traditional and modern medicine since ancient times. It has been proven in studies that these products, consisting of honey, royal jelly, propolis, bee bread, beeswax and bee venom, show many properties such as antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, wound healing. Recently, researchers have been working on using bee products as a mixture to get maximum efficiency. In this thesis, royal jelly and chestnut honey were used as a mixture. The mixture prepared at a ratio of 1:5, its antioxidant, antimicrobial activity and cytotoxic, genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects were determined on BEAS-2B (healthy epithelial lung cell) and A549 (lung cancer cell). This study was carried out using chestnut honey and royal jelly obtained from Bursa region. As a result of the study, the total phenolic content (TPC) of the mixture was 74±3.86 mg GAE/100 g, FRAP and ABTS antioxidant activity values were 381.9±23.55 µM TE /100 g and 506±4.38 µM TE/100 g, respectively. When the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) values are examined on Gram (+), Gram (–) bacteria, yeast and mold; S. aureus had the highest value (15% mL/mL) and was the most resistant bacteria; It was determined that S. epidermis and L. monocytogenes were the most sensitive bacteria to the mixture with the lowest MBC value (5% mL/mL). In addition, it was determined that the mixture had better antifungal activity on yeasts than on molds. According to the results of MTT and NRU cytotoxicity tests applied on BEAS-2B and A549 cells, it was concluded that the mixture have no cytotoxic effect on either cell line. According to the genotoxicity results using the Comet test, it was determined that the mixture had a genotoxic effect only at 10% concentration on A549 and BEAS-2B cells compared to the untreated control group. BEAS-2B and A549 cells, which were exposed to DNA damage with H2O2, were treated with the mixture and its antigenotoxic effect was evaluated. According to the results of the Comet test, while at 1%, 5% and 25% concentrations of mixture repaired DNA damage in BEAS-2B cells; only at 1% concentration of mixture repaired DNA damage in A549 cells. The results show that the royal jelly-chestnut honey mixture has strong biological activity.