Abstract

FONTE-CARBALLO, Leydi; MILIAN-RODRIGUEZ, Yanio E  and  DIAZ-SOLARES, Maykelis. Antimicrobial potential and characterization of Melipona beecheii propolis from two agroenergetic farms. Pastos y Forrajes [online]. 2016, vol.39, n.2, pp. 149-156. ISSN 2078-8452.

The study was conducted in two agroenergetic farms of Matanzas province (La Primavera and Indio Hatuey), in order to determine the in vitro antimicrobial activity of the methanolic and ethanolic extracts of propolis collected in these farms, and characterize them through infrared spectroscopy. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of such extracts was determined before studying the antimicrobial activity (by the method of agar perforations). Both biological essays were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomona aeruginosa and Candida albicans. As the variance homogeneity and normality assumptions were not fulfilled, the non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test was used, to determine the existence of differences among the treatments depending on the inhibition halo. The propolis extracts from the two farms showed low MIC values for the evaluated microorganisms (between 0,07 and 0,15 mg/mL), with the exception of P. aeruginosa which was the most susceptible one (0,04 mg/mL). From the three tested dilutions: 100, 75 and 25 %, the first (belonging to the methanolic propolis extract from La Primavera farm) reached the highest inhibitory effect. The highest difference in the infrared spectra was found in the region interval from 2 000 a 500 cm^-1 of the propolis belonging to the Indio Hatuey farm. It is concluded that the propolis extractions with methanol and ethanol allow to obtain natural products with high antimicrobial activity against the four evaluated microorganisms.

Keywords : Infrared spectroscopy; microorganisms; honey.