Standardization, anti-carcinogenic potential and biosafety of Indian propolis

ABSTRACT

Background: Propolis from apiculture is known for wide range of medicinal properties owing to its vastchemical constituents including polyphenols, flavonoids and anticancer agent Caffeic acid phenethylester (CAPE).Objectives: The objective of the study was to extract and standardize Indian propolis (IP) with respect toselected markers by newly developed High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, toevaluate in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity and biosafety of Indian propolis.Materials and methods: IP was extracted, optimized and standardized using a newly developed andvalidated HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of caffeic acid, apigenin, quercetin and CAPE. Thestandardised ethanolic extract of IP (EEIP) was screened for in vitro cytotoxicity using sulforhodamine B(SRB) assay, in vivo anti-carcinogenic effect against Dalton’s Lymphoma ascites (DLA) cells, hemolyticeffect and pesticide analysis.Results: The EEIP was found to contain more amount of total flavonoids (23.61 ± 0.0452 mg equivalent ofquercetin/g), total polyphenolics (34.82 ± 0.0785 mg equivalent of gallic acid/g) and all selected markersexcept caffeic acid compared to all other extracts. EEIP showed better anti-cancer potential than CAPE onMCF-7 and HT-29 cell line and significant (p < 0.01) in vivo anti-carcinogenic effects against DLA incomparison with 5-fluorouracil. EEIP was found to be non-hemolytic.Conclusion: From in vitro cytotoxicity, in vivo anti-carcinogenicity and biosafety studies it can be concludedthat the standardized EEIP is safe and can be considered for further development as a biomedicine.© 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).