Authors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Azizi Che Yunus, Cathie Tan Ah Tee, Bruce Cheong Chiew Soong, Dr. Lee Nian Yian, Zuhaili Idham, Nor Faadila Mohd Idrus
Company/Faculty/School: UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY OF MALAYSIA and ECO BEE SHOP SDN BHD
Country: Malaysia
e-mail: info@tisias.org
Along with other bees’ product such as honey and royal jelly, Malaysian stingless bees (kelulut) propolis has outstanding therapeutic properties. However, ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP) raise-up the issue of food safety and halal. Furthermore, high content of unpalatable beeswax causes lower quality and purity of EEP. Extraction of propolis with supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) produces alcohol-free propolis extract. The high selectivity of SC-CO2 allows the separation of valuable compound from propolis. Therefore, propolis is dissolved in the SC-CO2 to remove all unwanted substances, yielding a pure final gold propolis extract rich in active compounds for extensive health effects.
