The effect of propolis administration on fetal development

Al Mukhlas Fikri; Ahmad Sulaeman; Ekowati Handharyani; Sri Anna Marliyati; Mokhamad Fahrudin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02672

The effect of propolis administration on fetal development

Heliyon. 2019 Oct 23;5(10):e02672. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02672. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Authors

Al Mukhlas Fikri¹, Ahmad Sulaeman¹, Ekowati Handharyani², Sri Anna Marliyati¹, Mokhamad Fahrudin³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Human Ecology, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia.
² Department of Veterinary Clinic Reproduction and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia.
³ Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia.

Abstract

Propolis is one of the bee products that widely used in health therapy. However, there has no study evaluating the developmental toxicity of propolis. This study was aimed to analyze the effect of propolis administration during pregnancy on fetal development. The pregnant mice were divided into five groups including control group (Tween 80 1%), low-dose (380 mg/kg b.wt.) and high-dose (1400 mg/kg b.wt.) of water extract of propolis from Banten (WEB), and low-dose (380 mg/kg b.wt.) and high-dose (1400 mg/kg b.wt.) of ethanol extract of propolis from South Sulawesi (EES). Propolis was administered for 18 days of gestation and then sacrificed to analyze the fetal development by examining external and skeletal abnormalities. The histopathological examination of placenta was also conducted. The result showed both low-dose groups did not inhibit fetal development. However, the high-dose of EES significantly reduced the weight, crown-rump of fetuses and increased the number of resorption (p < 0.05). Fetal weight was the only significantly reduced parameter of fetal growth in the highdose group of WEB (p < 0.05). The histopathological examination of placenta showed a reduction of labyrinth development in both high-dose groups. Dose of 380 mg/kg dose of Indonesian propolis is relatively safe for consumption during pregnancy.

Keywords: Developmental biology; Food science; Natural product chemistry; Nutrition; Pharmaceutical science; Stingless bee propolis; Teratogenicity; Toxicology.