Antioxidant Capacity and Mineral Content of Some Sudanese Propolis

Propolis is a resinous substance collected by worker bees (Apis mellifera) from the bark of trees and leaves of plants. The objectives of this work were directed towards studying of the chemical composition, minerals profile and antioxidant capacity of two samples of Sudanese propolis obtained from Kosti (southern Sudan) and Darfur (western Sudan). The result showed that the two samples of propolis contained significantly different (Pless than 0.05) amounts of moisture, ash, fiber, fat, protein and carbohydrate. Macro-minerals varied between the two samples and highest value was recorded for Mg++ (262.1mg/100g) for Darfur sample, while Na+ obtained the lowest value (32-28mg/100g). however micro- minerals were not detected except iron (0.6and 0.5mg/100g) for Kosti and Darfur samples respectively. According to the levels of antioxidant groups the results obtained revealed that the two samples of propolis contained significantly different (Pless than 0.05) amounts of total polyphenols and total flavonoids and they ranged between (1007-1113mg/100g) (75.2-82.08mg/100g) for Darfur and Kosti samples respectively. The antioxidant activities of the studied propolis were as follows Ferric reducing antioxidant power was within the range of 3.79-36.53mM/ml, chelation of Fe+2ion ranged from 8.73 to 43.25 % and scavenging of H2O2 ranged from 60.37 to 92.68 %. The result obtained indicated that Kosti sample was superior in total reducing power ability and scavenging of H2O2while Darfur sample was better in chelation of Fe+2.