Similar to nectar, honey bees (especially Apis mellifera) also collect various plant exudates such as sap, resin, gums and latex. Later on, honey bees add their saliva and wax to it and produce a bioactive product,“propolis”. They use this propolis as a construction material for sealing openings in a beehive, as well as to maintain aseptic conditions inside the colony (Salatino, Teixeira, Negri, & Message, 2005).

The available flora around colonies is the main determinant of the chemical composition of propolis. Consequently, the chemical composition of propolis is sometimes specific to a territory, and can change with the season. This highlights that propolis is a territory-linked natural product, which can be chemically characterized according to each region of production and/or season of the world. Roughly, propolis is composed of 50% resin, 30% wax, 10% essential oils, 5% pollen, and 5% of various other organic compounds. So far, over 300 different