Hi everyone

My wife and I are very keen on propolis and have been using it for the past
20 or so years. We have set up a processing system in the traditional way.
Macerating for a long time (over 15 days) in 70% alcohol, filtering and
finally evaporating the alcohol to get a softextract that we call 100%
propolis.

For the past 2 months I have been reviewing all our process, reading lots
of papers and doing many experiments with the aim of expanding our
production capacity 100 times bigger. Today we produce around 5 kg of
softextract per month but need to produce 500 kg if we are going to accept
a japanese offer for exporting softextract there.

Based on paper phenols are very stable under temperature below 200°C
therefore maceration can be accelerated if propolis is heated in water.
Filtration is also faster because most of the wax is separated from the
rest of the components of raw propolis. Evaporation is quite easy to
accelerate with the proper equipment (main problem is pressure and alcohol
explosion so max temperature must be kept under 70°C).

So first question is ... any tips for propolis softextract production? do
you know of any top of the shelf equipment?

Now the main question, propolis contamination. Based on the experience of
Uruguay when they started exporting under the required testing of a
Zoosanitary Certificate most of the propolis was contaminated with
acaricides or other plaguicided used in agriculture. So the question is:
could that contamination be cleaned? I mean, I am supossing that agrotoxics
want to live in the wax or they want to live in water, so in the
purification process of propolis, most of the contaminant will be carried
out of the phenol/flavonoids part, Am I right?

All your opinions are welcome.


Cheers,

Juanse Barros
southern Chile

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