# Functional and Antimicrobial Properties of Propolis from Different Areas of Romania
## 3 Results
### Phenolic Profiles of PEEs  
Twenty phenolic compounds (phenolic acids and flavonoids) were quantified in the propolis samples (Table 5). The results demonstrated that samples A, S, and H exhibited the highest concentration of phenolic acids, while C1 and C2 displayed a higher abundance of flavonoids. The highest value of protocatechuic acid was observed in extract S, 0.62 ug/g, followed by A (0.41 ug/g), C1 (0.40 ug/g), C2 (0.37 ug/g), and H (0.20 ug/g). The highest concentration of \(p\)-OH-benzoic acid was observed in the PE from Alba County (A), with a value of 9.15 ug/g, followed by H (7.16 ug/g) and then S (5.76 ug/g). The lowest values were observed for C1 and C2, at 3.76 and 3.2 ug/g, respectively. Catechu was identified in only two of the extracts, namely H (1.6 ug/g) and A (0.24 ug/g). The highest concentration of vanillic acid was observed in extract S (1.3 ug/g), followed by extract A (0.85 ug/g). Extract C2 exhibited a concentration of 0.61 ug/g, while C1 demonstrated a concentration of 0.50 ug/g. With regard to chlorogenic acid, this was only identified in extract S (0.54 ug/g) among the five samples analysed. Caffeic acid was identified in all the analysed samples. The highest concentration was observed in extract A (77.95 ug/g), followed by C1 (42.41 ug/g). The concentrations of this phenolic acid in samples H, C2, and S were found to be 28.15 ug/g, 22.93 ug/g, and 20.76 ug/g, respectively. Vanillin was identified in all samples, with the highest concentration observed in extract S (27.26 ug/g), followed by H (22.8 ug/g) and A (18.69 ug/g). Lower concentrations were recorded for extracts C2 (8.84 ug/g) and C1 (6.58 ug/g). About \(p\)-cumaric acid, notable quantities are evident across the five extracts. Extract H exhibits the highest concentration of this compound, at 295.08 ug/g, followed by S (188.33 ug/g) and A (158.41 ug/g). The extracts with the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**C1** & **C2** & **A** & **S** & **H** \\ \hline
**TPC** & 149.8 \(\pm\) 0.8\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 125.4 \(\pm\) 1.0\({}^{\,\text{c}}\) & 150.0 \(\pm\) 0.4\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 146.3 \(\pm\) 0.6\({}^{\,\text{b}}\) & 149.7 \(\pm\) 0.6 \({}^{\,\text{a}}\) \\
**TFC** & 16.9 \(\pm\) 0.5\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 9.8 \(\pm\) 0.8\({}^{\,\text{c}}\) & 13.0 \(\pm\) 0.8\({}^{\,\text{b}}\) & 5.9 \(\pm\) 0.5\({}^{\,\text{d}}\) & 1.5 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\,\text{e}}\) \\ \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{\,\text{TPC: mg GAE/g fresh weight; TPC: mg QE/g fresh weight.}}\)  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Total phenolic content and total flavonoids of the 1% PEEs. The data were expressed as the mean \(\pm\) SD (\(n\) = 3). Different lowercase letters (a–e) in each row indicate significant differences \(p\) < 0.05. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline
**Quality** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Proposi Extracts**} \\ \cline{2-5}
**Parameter (\%)** & **C1** & **C2** & **A** & **S** & **H** \\ \hline
**Wax** & 41.2 \(\pm\) 0.2\({}^{\,\text{b}}\) & 47.2 \(\pm\) 0.6\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 20.0 \(\pm\) 0.3\({}^{\,\text{e}}\) & 31.9 \(\pm\) 0.3\({}^{\,\text{d}}\) & 39.5 \(\pm\) 0.7 \({}^{\,\text{c}}\) \\
**Balsam 1\%** & 49.4 \(\pm\) 0.5\({}^{\,\text{c}}\) & 44.7 \(\pm\) 0.9\({}^{\,\text{d}}\) & 61.6 \(\pm\) 0.6\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 51.9 \(\pm\) 0.8\({}^{\,\text{b}}\) & 51.6 \(\pm\) 0.9 \({}^{\,\text{b}}\) \\
**Balsam 10\%** & 50.0 \(\pm\) 0.9\({}^{\,\text{c}}\) & 41.0 \(\pm\) 0.9\({}^{\,\text{d}}\) & 64.8 \(\pm\) 0.2\({}^{\,\text{a}}\) & 54.8 \(\pm\) 0.5\({}^{\,\text{b}}\) & 54.1 \(\pm\) 0.5 \({}^{\,\text{b}}\) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Percentage of wax content in raw propolisis samples and percentage of balsam in PEEs. The data are expressed as mean \(\pm\) SD (\(n\) = 3). Different lowercase letters (a–e) in each row indicate significant differences \(p\) < 0.05.  
lowest concentration of the specified substance were C1 (64.12 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/g) and C2 (57.76 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/g).