Betty wrote:
> propolis is processed according to
>the final end use, as a tincture or whatever.  This is by dissolving the raw
>product in substances such as ether or alcohol and then preparing for human
>use.

        The term 'tincture' normally means 'solution in ethanol'.
        If anyone decides to try ether, warnings are in order.
        'Ether' normally means 'diethyl ether'.  (There is also a mixture
of hydrocarbons somewhat like kerosene called 'petroleum ether'.)   Diethyl
ether has a dangerously combustible vapour, but the liquid itself is also
dangerous.  A fellow research chemist once had a winchester (glass flagon)
of ether explode spontaneously in his lab, just along the corridor from the
tearoom where the staff & grad students were, fortunately, congregated for
morning tea; we were all startled by the loud bang.  Shards of glass were
driven into the walls, ceiling & floor of that lab.
         Technical-grade ether has inhibitors added to slow formation of
the peroxides that cause such explosions, but I would advise anyone outside
the chemical industry to stay well clear of ether.  (You would probably
have difficulty getting much of it, because of this danger; but I'm saying
don't bother.)

        The usual solvent for propolis, ethyl alcohol, poses other hazards
but is not explosive in any comparable way.

        For us S. Hemisphere beekeepers as winter colds now threaten, it's
a good time to point out that sucking a sliver of propolis (no ethanol or
ether involved!) is a good treatment for sore throats.  I've not found it
tastes terrible; but that opens up the whole issue of different propolis
compositions according to which trees etc it's formed from.


R