The aim of this work was to determine phenolic acid and flavonoid contents, as well as antioxidant properties of propolis from different regions of Poland. Total phenolic content of propolis samples ranged from 150.05 to 197.14 mg/g GAE, while total flavonoid content was 35.64-62.04 mg/g QE. The dominant phenolic acid was p-coumaric acid, the content of which was from 37.54 to 116.95 mg/g. The samples also contained much ferulic acid. Among the flavonoids, chrysine and galangine were dominant, and for two samples, naringine was dominant. The propolis samples exhibited various antiradical activity measured towards DPPH(·) (1.92-2.69 mM TE/g) and ABTS(·+) (3.96-4.98 mM TE/g) and reducing power was determined by the ferric reducing antioxidant power method (6.23-9.19 mM Fe(II)/g). The significant linear correlations between total phenolic content and antiradical activity and between total phenolic content and reducing power were observed. Moreover, the total flavonoids content significantly correlated with antiradical activity and reducing power.
Keywords: HPLC; antioxidant activity; phenolic compounds; propolis.