Cytotoxicity effect of honey, bee pollen, and propolis from seven stingless bees in some cancer cell lines

Enos Tangke Arung; Rico Ramadhan; Binti Khairunnisa; Yhiya Amen; Masako Matsumoto; Maki Nagata; Irawan Wijaya Kusuma; Swandari Paramita; Sukemi; Yadi; Nataniel Tandirogang; Naomichi Takemoto; Syafrizal; Yong-Ung Kim; Kuniyoshi Shimizu

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.08.017

Cytotoxicity effect of honey, bee pollen, and propolis from seven stingless bees in some cancer cell lines

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Dec;28(12):7182-7189. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.08.017. Epub 2021 Aug 10.

Authors

Enos Tangke Arung^{1

2}, Rico Ramadhan^{3

4}, Binti Khairunnisa¹, Yhiya Amen^{5

6}, Masako Matsumoto⁵, Maki Nagata⁵, Irawan Wijaya Kusuma^{1

2}, Swandari Paramita^{2

7}, Sukemi⁸, Yadi⁹, Nataniel Tandirogang⁹, Naomichi Takemoto⁵, Syafrizal¹⁰, Yong-Ung Kim¹¹, Kuniyoshi Shimizu^{5

12}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Forest Product Chemistry, Faculty of Forestry, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia.
² Research Center for Drugs and Cosmetics from Tropical Rainforest Resources, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Airlangga University, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia.
⁴ Division of Exploration and Synthesis of Bioactive Compounds, Research Center for Bio-Molecule Engineering, Airlangga University, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia.
⁵ Department of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁶ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia.
⁸ Chemical Education Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia.
⁹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mulawarman University, Samarinda, Indonesia.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Mulawarman University, Samarinda 75123, Indonesia.
¹¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, College of Herbal Bio-industry, Daegu Haany University, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.
¹² Kyushu University Institute for Asian and Oceanian Studies, Fukuoka, Japan.

Abstract

Our effort to find new material for anti cancer from natural resources leads us to focus on stingless bee products such as honey, bee pollen, and propolis. The products were from seven stingless bees named Homotrigona fimbriata, Heterotrigona itama, Heterotrigona bakeri, Tetragonula sarawakensis, Tetragonula testaceitarsis, Tetragonula fuscobalteata, Tetragonula laeviceps. The stingless bee products were evaluated for their cytotoxicity effect on MCF-7, HeLa and Caco-2 cancer cell lines. This is the first time to be reported that the honey, ethanol extracts of bee pollen and propolis of H. fimbriata displayed more potent cytotoxicity than other stingless bee products. By chromatography and biological activity-guided fractionation, ethanol extract of propolis from H. fimbriata was fractionated and isolated its active compound named mangiferonic acid. Mangiferonic acid showed a cytotoxicity effect with IC₅₀ values 96.76 µM in MCF-7, >110.04 µM in HeLa, and > 110.04 µM in Caco-2, respectively. These results exhibited the potential of ethanol extracts from propolis of H. fimbriata to be further developed for drug and experiments to verify the function are essential.

Keywords: Bee pollen; Cytotoxicity; H. fimbriata; Honey; Propolis; Stingless bees.