Obtenção de própolis, potencial tecnológico e aplicações industriais

Abstract

Propolis is a substance manufactured by bees through resinous plant secretions. With highly variable composition and color, depending on the geographic region of the material collected by the bees in the hive, propolis has a repairing, antiseptic, among others fundamental functions to maintain the longevity of the colony. Beekeepers have developed efficient methods for collecting and stimulating the production of propolis, currently an important product on the market, mainly from Brazil. With the use in the past restricted to area of medicine, today, this resinous material has a very extensive range of applications. Therefore, this work sought to carry out a bibliographic revision on the obtainment of propolis (its aspects from the collection of materials by bees, handling by the beekeeper, composition, properties and legislation involved) and describe its technological characteristics for application in industry. The results of the researches carried out indicated that the industrial application and technological potential of propolis is closely related to the food and pharmaceutical industry, in addition to being the target of applications in Materials Engineering, in the agricultural sector and in the cosmetics area. In the food industry, its application is essentially focused on the constitution of packaging and inhibition of bacterial biofilms, due to the high antimicrobial and antioxidant potential. In the pharmaceutical industry, the development of products for topical use is the focus of many studies, in addition to propolis having an important inclusion in the constitution of products aimed at dentistry in oral hygiene and/or treatment. The antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and healing potential of propolis are some of the incentive for the use of propolis in the pharmaceutical area. In practically all areas and researches with the application of propolis, it was observed that its use aimed, in addition to the high range of inherent properties of this product, the replacement of synthetic products compared to natural ones, reducing the toxicity that can be caused by products synthetic products, as well as making the process cheaper, as it is a natural product.