As noted previously, polyphenols are being identified as the class of nutrients responsible for the most significant health-promoting effects. Consequently, products featuring isolated polyphenols are common in the health food market in the U.S. and elsewhere. Examples include products and ingredients such as Pycnogenol, Soy Isoflavones, Lipoic Acid, Lignans, Quercetin, Rutin, Anthocyanins, and Proanthocyanidins. Sales of these products is driven by published research. Individually, these polyphenols provide substantial benefits. However, propolis is a much different product. No other substance in nature provides the broad range of polyphenols that propolis provides. In fact, propolis polyphenols do not need to be isolated and concentrated, because they exist naturally in a concentrated form. And the broad spectrum of polyphenols means that the benefits are not restricted to the benefits of a single polyphenol, but, rather, offers the combined synergy of a natural mixture of different polyphenols.

The polyphenols of propolis include many compounds that researchers are excited about. Propolis also contains many compounds that have not been identified yet or studied by science, e.g. non-polyphenolics. (Please see below.) Researchers are being challenged, however, because they are beginning to notice that what is significant with respect to the activities of propolis is the combined activity of the polyphenols, or the synergy. A study from Bulgaria, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 64 (1999) 235-240, analyzed propolis from twelve different regions of the world. What it found was that the individual polyphenols found in different types of propolis differed radically from each other. Specific polyphenols that were considered significant in one type of propolis were virtually absent in others. Surprisingly, however, the beneficial activities were nearly the same for all propolis samples. This study suggests that specific polyphenols may be less significant than the synergistic interaction of the full spectrum of polyphenols. The conclusion that the authors draw in this study is that the individual purified polyphenols are not as powerful as the full spectrum of polyphenols in whole propolis. In fact, the researchers address exactly this point when they refer to the outcomes of past studies: [It is important to note that all investigations on the...action of individual substances, isolated from propolis, showed that not a single propolis component has an activity greater than that of the total extract] (Kumjumgiev et al., 1993; Serra Bonvehi et al., 1994).

In other words, researchers have found that if you isolate a compound from propolis it still does not outperform whole propolis, no matter how high a concentration is used. This finding represents the exact concepts of synergy. The effect of whole propolis is greater than the sum of its parts. The modes of action of propolis is proving to be more than the results of single nutrients. Rather, they seem to be the synergy created by a combined mixture of nutrients.

These studies in turn suggest that bee propolis has more nutritive value than any single polyphenol ingredient or supplement. Scientists acknowledge the existence of synergy as a powerful force of nature, but they have no means to study it. That is because too many variables in research lead to inconclusive results. Research requires single compounds. So, as tantalizing as propolis is, its synergy and complexity still defies and confounds researchers. Its synergistic mode of action is a puzzle that is too complex for science to unravel. At least, for now.

It is also becoming more and more clear that supplements that promote health protection and preventive effects are extremely valuable. Antibiotic drugs have led to drug-resistant bacteria along with more and more virulent strains, so it is even more important than ever to strengthen our natural immune capabilities. And, considering the measurements and studies above, propolis seems to be one of the best fits in accomplishing these goals.

History has shown that the closer one looks, the more one sees. Our guess is that more beneficial polyphenols will be identified in propolis in the future. And yet, while High Desert Propolis has a huge polyphenol content at 13.5%, that still leaves 86.5% that is non-polyphenolic. Can we assume that the non-polyphenolic compounds in propolis are irrelevant? We think not. In fact, new research is starting to reach the conclusion that non-polyphenolic compounds in propolis seem to make beneficial contributions. We think that researchers will soon identify many significant new plant compounds that are not polyphenols. And we are certain that High Desert® Propolis will have large quantities of these newly identified compounds. That is because if there is something powerful and good out in nature, the bees have probably found it, and have probably been using it all along. In fact, we are looking forward to many more studies that prove to us what we have already known. That is, there is nothing like propolis.
 
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