GC-MS based metabolic profile and toxicological evaluation of three Algerian propolis

Safia Boulechfar; Amar Zellagui; Chawki Bensouici; Mesbah Lahouel; Abderrachid Desdous

doi:10.1080/14786419.2023.2298382

GC-MS based metabolic profile and toxicological evaluation of three Algerian propolis

Nat Prod Res. 2023 Dec 26:1-5. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2023.2298382. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Safia Boulechfar^{1

2}, Amar Zellagui², Chawki Bensouici³, Mesbah Lahouel⁴, Abderrachid Desdous⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nature and Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, 20th August University, Skikda, Algeria.
² Laboratory of Biomolecules and Plant Breeding, Department of Nature and Life Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Nature and Life Sciences, University of Larbi Ben Mhidi, Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria.
³ Research Center of Biotechnology, Constantine, Algeria.
⁴ Molecular Toxicology Laboratory, Mohammed Seddik Benyahia University, Jijel, Algeria.
⁵ Department of Molecular and cell Biology, Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences, Mohammed Seddik Benyahia University, Jijel, Algeria.

PMID: 38146614
DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2023.2298382

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and toxicity of methanolic extracts of three Algerian propolis collected from Oum el Bouaghi (MEPO), El Harrouch (MEPH) and Collo (MEPC) regions. The chemical profile was characterised by GC-MS. The toxicity of the extracts was tested using brine shrimp model. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of ferulic acid (23.8%), pinostrobin chalcone (15.8%) and α-eudesmol (11.3%) as major compounds in MEPO, pinostrobin chalcone (22.2%), 9-octadecenoic acid, methyl ester, (E)- (17.4%), and γ-gurjunenepoxide-(2) (11.7%) were the most abundant components in MEPH, whereas MEPC was dominated by 1-heptatriacotanol (17.8%), pinostrobin chalcone (14.7%), totarol (13.7%) and 9-octadecenoic acid, methyl ester, (E)- (13.0%). The brine shrimp lethality test indicated that the extracts had moderate toxicity in which MEPC exhibited the highest activity with LC₅₀ of 201.61 ± 7.27 µg/mL. All extracts showed no toxicity at 25 µg/mL concentration and below.

Keywords: GC-MS; Propolis; brine shrimp; toxicity.