Volatile Constituents of Propolis

Propolis (bee glue) is a resinous hive product, collected by bees. It possesses versatile biological activity antibacterial, antiviral, fungicidal, anti­ ulcer, immunostimulating, hypotensive, cytostatic, etc. [1]. The chemical com position of propolis ap­ peared to be very complex at least 156 propolis constituents have been identified so far [2,3]. M ost im portant constituents of propolis appeared to be phenolics, which constitute m ore than 50% of its to tal weight and are probably connected to a sub­ stantial part of its biological activity. For this reason m ost of the investigations on the chemical composition of propolis have been connected with its phenolic constituents. In few publications the chemical composition of volatile oils from propolis was described [4 -8 ]. M ore than 30 constituents of these oils have been identified but a substantial part of the GC/MS peaks rem ained unidentified. The phenolic composition of most investigated propolis samples appeared to be similar and this could be ex­ plained with their common origin from poplar bud exudates. C ontrary to the phenolics, the com posi­ tion of volatile oils differed significantly in all inves­ tigated samples. D ifferent groups of com pounds have been found in volatile oils from propolis. These oils consist mainly of terpenoids. In this group ses-