Propolis is one of the apicultural products used in medicine and cosmetics because of its antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiinflammatory and antitumour properties. Still is one of the bee products, for which very little information is available in terms of its capacity to absorb pollutants from the environment (e.g. heavy metals) or agricultural and veterinary chemicals.
In INSIGNIA-EU we consider propolis as one of the matrixes to be tested for pesticides, heavy metals and microplastics. In order to test the pilot studies efficiently we will experiment on the different materals and to collect the propolis. About 70 pieces of brown polyethylene propolis screen and white PVC propolis screens have been individually placed in paper envelopes and they will be shipped to 6 labs for testing.
A wooden propolis screen is on its way as well! Very exciting to see how much we collect, in how many days, and with which material we can have the quality we need for the particular analysis to be performed!
Prepared by Fani Hatjina, for the INSIGNIA_EU