Propolis does have some antibiotic properties but nothing on the order of, say, penicillin. If I remember correctly, the primary mechanisms by which propolis inhibits bacteria include:
1. Dehydration. Like honey and other saturated syrups, propolis has a high osmolarity - it sucks the fluids out of the bacteria, killing it.
2. Other chemical reactivity. Like honey's hydrogen peroxide, propolis contains specific chemicals that can have antibacterial effect. In this case, the specific chemicals vary a lot depending on the exact resins available in your area that the bees use to make their propolis. I think it was a BeeCulture article a few years back that talked about the high regional variability of propolis. The critical issue, however, is concentration. Sforcin et al showed antibacterial effects against some organisms as low as 0.4%. Other organisms required concentrations of 4.5% to 8.0%. (That would be an awful lot of propolis in the average diet.) And some organisms don't appear susceptible at all.
3. Encapsulation. Being sticky and relatively impermeable, propolis can trap and cover the spores (or the germs themselves if they're not sporulating during their mobile phase). Even if they're still viable bugs, they can't infect the bees until the propolis is disturbed.
I've never heard of putting propolis on cereal before. From what I've read, I don't think any of the pathways above would be effective. (Milk would dilute it too much for dehydrative action, you wouldn't be eating enough for direct chemical action and, well, encapsulation just doesn't apply.) However, there are allegations on the Internet that propolis works in humans not by direct antibacterial activity but by stimulating your immune system (perhaps by supplementing your diet with certain flavonoids, etc). I've never read anything that proved those claims to my satisfaction.
Regardless, that immune-support mechanism would not actually kill the germs. The question is whether mechanisms 1 and 2 above (dehydration and direct chemical action) would be sufficient to reach the technical level of sanitization in working equipment. The concentration of propolis on my endbars would be 100% after all.
My thought is that there are enough bugs not susceptible to those mechanisms at all and that over time they will tend to accumulate in the propolis. To reach the level of "sanitizing" your equipment in the sense that the FDA talks about sanitizing food preparation surfaces, I think you still need to get the propolis off first.
I will freely admit that I am out of my area of expertise here. If someone has better data or actual citations, please correct me.
Mike Rossander
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