Assessment of lipid profile of eight propolis samples from western Romania

Abstract

Propolis is a natural resinous mixture produced by honeybees in order to strengthen, isolate and sanitize the hive that has been systematically reported to exert a plethora of beneficial effects on human health. The aim of the present study was to analyse the lipid profile of 8 propolis samples collected from producers in Western Romania. Lipids were extracted with a Soxtest system and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The total lipid level showed an average value of 33.17 ± 0.16% (w/w). A total number of 56 lipids were identified, among which ~ 30% were fatty acids, ranging from 24.50% to 45.13% in lipids extracted; unsaturated fatty acids were reported between 4.22% and 13.40% in samples. In particular, 8 fatty acids were identified as being present in all the investigated propolis samples: palmitic, oleic, behenic, arachidic, stearic, α-linolenic (essential fatty acid from ω-3 series), myristic and lauric acid. Principal components analysis and cluster analysis were performed to analyse the data.