ARBEITSGEMEINSCHAFT DER INSTITUTE FÜR ... - HAL - INRIA

is caused by its content of caffeoylic compounds. Propolis of non-tropical origin
does contain those compounds, including caffeic acid itself as well as two different
quercetin dervatives. Only traces of underivatized quercetin, luteolin and especially
one or two different dicaffeoylics were found in each sample. These dicaffeoylics
were shown by us for the first time to occur in propolis by a combination of
HPLC and UV spectroscopy. On the other hand, no phenolic compounds of any
type were detected in our tropical samples from Hawaii, although they too
exhibited antiviral activity.
Herpes viruses of several different bird species (including the tumourforming
Marek virus) and the mammalian pathogen Aujeszky virus have been
tested successfully. An interesting trend was found : whereas the majority among
our test viruses was more strongly inhibited by compounds with the caffeoylic
molecular moiety tightly enclosed in a larger molecule (e.g. flavonoids or aurones),
the few remaining viruses were more strongly inhibited by compounds with the
caffeoylic molecular moiety reaching more « freely out of the whole molecule
(however, in every case, the vicinal hydroxy groups of the caffeic acid had to be