Antibiotic of bees
Propolis is used by bees to protect the bee colony from disease. They use it to seal openings and to isolate foreign matter that has been introduced into the hive. The name of the honey-yellow, sweetsmelling bee resin comes from the Greek words for «before» and «city», thus describing the protective function that propolis has for the beehive.
For the most part propolis consists of pollen balm and natural resin, which young worker bees gather from buds and sores of birch, beech, alder and poplar trees. In the afternoon, when the sun has softened the resin, the young bees take on the resin with their mandibles and transport it back to the hive sticking to their legs. The collected propolis can be harvested if the beekeeper places a foreign body in the hive. In order to protect their habitat, the bees surround the foreign body with propolis. The foreign body and the propolis sticking to it can then be removed.
More than 300 different ingredients can be attributed to propolis, including iron, copper, selenium, essential oils, vitamin A and vitamin E. The antioxidating effect of propolis is primarily explained by the high number of esters and polyphenols, especially flavonoids. The latter are largely responsible for the immune-enhancing and anti-inflammatory properties of propolis and have been used in medicine for a long time.
Propolis is used in Hoffmann’s Pulpine, Hoffmann’s Pulpine NE and Hoffmann’s Pulpine Mineral for caries profunda therapy and for direct pulp capping.