Propolis: What It Is and How to Buy It in the UK

Bees make propolis; beekeepers only collect it. Workers gather resin from the buds and bark of trees and knead it with beeswax into a stiff, sticky building material — the name is Greek and structural: pro, in front of; polis, the city.

What is propolis made of?

Plant resin and beeswax, mostly. Resin is the larger fraction — often up to half, by FAO’s figures — with beeswax next and essential oils among the rest. Which resins the bees find decides everything else: composition tracks the local flora so closely that chemists sort propolis into chemical types by plant source. Across the temperate zone the usual type is poplar propolis, gathered largely from the buds of Populus species, and a single sample can hold as many as 300 separate compounds. Two jars labelled “propolis” can differ more than two varietal honeys do — origin and label matter, not the word alone.

How do bees use propolis in the hive?

Structurally. Colonies cover holes and crevices with it and narrow the hive entrance. A wild colony in a tree cavity coats the inner walls in a layer 0.3 to 0.5 mm thick — the “propolis envelope” — and smooths surfaces before attaching new comb. When an intruder dies in the hive and is too big to carry out, the bees encase the body in propolis; a mouse entombed this way has been on record since 1965.

How is propolis harvested?

By scraping, or with traps. Scraping is the old way — off walls, frames, entrances and covers with a hive tool. Traps invite the behaviour — a screen laid over the colony imitates cracks in the hive wall, and the bees seal every gap. The filled screen goes into a freezer for a few hours: between 25 and 45 °C propolis is soft, pliable and very sticky; below about 15 °C it turns brittle and cracks cleanly off the mesh.

Fig. I · The working temperature of propolisDiagram

This page states two temperature ranges for propolis, in two different sections. The scale below carries both, and shows what sits between them. The ruled column beside the words is drawn to depth — twenty degrees against ten — and the open runs at either end are not.

TemperatureWarmest at the top

Above 45 °CNo figure on this page — the scale runs on unbounded

45 °C

Soft, pliable and very stickyBetween 25 and 45 °C — twenty degrees

25 °C

Not named on this pageAbout 15 to 25 °C — ten degrees

15 °C

Brittle — cracks cleanly off the meshBelow about 15 °C — no floor stated

Soft — 25 to 45 °C

Between 25 and 45 °C propolis is soft, pliable and very sticky.

Brittle — below about 15 °C

Below about 15 °C it turns brittle and cracks cleanly off the mesh. The page states no floor, so the run is left open and is not drawn to scale.

About 15 to 25 °C

The page states no behaviour between the two ranges, so the band is ruled and left empty rather than filled.

Above 45 °C

No upper figure appears on this page, so no ceiling is drawn, no state is named, and the run is not to scale.

At the trap

A screen laid over the colony imitates cracks in the hive wall, and the bees seal every gap. The filled screen goes into a freezer for a few hours — the page gives that step a duration and no degrees, so the freezer is named here and not placed on the scale.

In the store

Airtight containers, in the dark, away from direct heat: dark glass for tinctures and sprays, a sealed jar somewhere cool for raw lumps.

Cold propolis is brittle; warm propolis sticks to everything — the page’s own summary of the material. Its storage guidance sits beside that clause rather than following from it, and “somewhere cool” is said of raw lumps only; neither is extended here.

What forms is propolis sold in?

Raw propolis is waxy and stubborn, so most of what UK shops sell is an extract in a carrier. Four formats dominate:

The liquid formats carry the most small print, so each has a guide of its own: propolis tincture for extract ratios, alcohol and strength; propolis spray for what else ends up in the bottle.

How do you read a UK propolis label?

Propolis is sold in the UK as food, usually as a food supplement, so under the Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 the label must state a recommended daily portion, warn against exceeding it, note that supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet, and say to keep the product out of the reach of young children. Those lines sit on every compliant bottle; they will not separate two products. The lines that will: propolis per daily portion, the ratio of raw propolis to solvent, the alcohol content, and whether honey or anything else has been added. A label that declares all four can be compared; one that declares none is selling the word.

How should propolis be stored?

Sealed, dark and cool. FAO’s guidance is airtight containers, in the dark, away from direct heat: dark glass for tinctures and sprays, a sealed jar somewhere cool for raw lumps — cold propolis is brittle; warm propolis sticks to everything.

Two notes before you buy

First, propolis is a known contact allergen. In European patch-test studies between 1.2% and 6.6% of people tested reacted to it; the main sensitisers are caffeates, compounds carried in with poplar resin, and recorded reactions include dermatitis and, on the lips, cheilitis.

Second, some sprays and tinctures list added honey, and honey is not suitable for infants under 12 months: it occasionally contains bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby’s intestines, leading to infant botulism. NHS guidance is no honey until they are over one year old.

Where THYMELIA stands

THYMELIA is a UK house for Cretan bee products from the Chania region of western Crete. Propolis is the one hive product whose make-up shifts with the trees around the apiary, so any we offer will name the ground it came off and publish what the laboratory found in it. How a harvest is chosen is at sourcing; what we test is at testing.