Optimization of phenolic compound extraction from olive oil-based propolis extracts and antimicrobial activity of extracts

Propolis is a resinous product collected by honey bees from different parts of plants. However, propolis is not suitable for use in its raw form directly harvested from the hive, it is a natural product that is extracted in appropriate solvents and consumed. Therefore, the extraction method to be applied to propolis and the choice of solvent to be used in extraction are very important. For this reason, in this thesis, it was aimed to optimize the process parameters of the traditional (maceration) extraction method using olive oil, which has been frequently preferred as a solvent in propolis extraction in recent years, and to determine the antimicrobial activity of the extracts. The effect of extraction method on the extraction of total phenolic compounds, antioxidant substances, chrysin, galangin and pinocembrin from propolis was determined. As a result of the optimization by response surface method, the optimum conditions were determined as 1:15 g/ml solid:solvent ratio, 30.10 °C temperature and a holding time of 9 days. The desirability value (d) of the model was determined as 0.92. In addition, when the antimicrobial activity results were evaluated, it was observed that the most sensitive samples against propolis extracts were Gram (+) bacteria. In conclusion, all these results show that olive oil can be an alternative solvent for propolis extraction under appropriate extraction parameters.