Preparation of ecological solvent-supported propolis extracts and development of encapsules

Propolis is a natural mixture with a resinous structure collected from honey bee hives. It is an important natural supplement product due to its wide range of biologically active properties. Raw propolis is consumed in the form of propolis extracts or capsules after being collected from beehives. Although ethanol is the most ideal propolis solvent known, environmentally friendly propolis extracts and capsules have recently attracted more attention. In this study planned as a doctoral thesis, it was aimed to develop raw propolis ecological extracts and capsules. For this purpose, extractions were made with deep eutectic solvent mixtures (choline chloride, lactic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, proline, etc.), vegetable oils (sunflower, hazelnut, olive oil, sesame oil, etc.) and water-based basic solubilization systems, and the solvent systems with the highest extraction capacity were tried to be determined. Encapsulation studies were carried out by applying spray drying, freeze drying and ionic gelation techniques against ethanolic Anatolian propolis pectin and inulin polymers. Extraction and encapsulation capacity of propolis was measured by total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), antioxidant capacity tests (FRAP and DPPH) and phenolic component analysis by RP-HPLC-PDA. The best deep eutectic mixture was determined to be choline chloride-lactic acid (1:10).