Isoflavone formononetin from red propolis acts as a fungicide against Candida sp

A bioassay-guided fractionation of two samples of Brazilian red propolis (from Igarassu, PE, Brazil, hereinafter propolis 1 and 2) was conducted in order to determine the components responsible for its antimicrobial activity, especially against Candida spp. Samples of both the crude powdered resin and the crude ethanolic extract of propolis from both locations inhibited the growth of all 12 tested Candida strains, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 256 μg/mL. The hexane, acetate and methanol fractions of propolis 1 also inhibited all strains with minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from 128 to 512 μg/mL for the six bacteria tested and from 32 to 1024 μg/mL for the yeasts. Similarly, hexane and acetate fractions of propolis sample 2 inhibited all microorganisms tested, with minimum inhibitory concentration values of 512 μg/mL for bacteria and 32 μg/mL for yeasts. The extracts were analyzed by HPLC and their phenolic profile allowed us to identify and quantitate one phenolic acid and seven flavonoids in the crude ethanolic extract. Formononetin and pinocembrin were the major constituents amongst the identified compounds. Formononetin was detected in all extracts and fractions tested, except for the methanolic fraction of sample 2. The isolated isoflavone formononetin inhibited the growth of all the microorganisms tested, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 200 μg/mL for the six bacteria strains tested and 25 μg/mL for the six yeasts. Formononetin also exhibited fungicidal activity against five of the six yeasts tested. Taken together our results demonstrate that the isoflavone formononetin is implicated in the reported antimicrobial activity of red propolis.