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Propolis is a natural resinous substance collected by honeybees from buds and exu-dates of trees. The material has attracted much attention in recent years as a functional food component since it possesses various biological properties, including antimicro-bial, antioxidative, and anti-ulcer properties. In this study, the performance of accel-erated solvent extraction (ASE) was assessed and compared with varying methods of extraction: soaking (maceration), ultrasonication, and microwave-assisted methods. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and other spectroscopic tech-niques, such as absorbance and fluorescence, were employed to assess the efficiency in the extraction of natural products. The antioxidant activity and phenolic content of the different extracts were also determined. Results showed samples obtained from the microwave method showed the highest yield in the extraction of bioactive com-pounds. Although microwave showed the best method in this study, some issues and recommendations on ASE application for extracting natural products from bee prop-olis were discussed. Given the ease in controlling extraction temperature with ASE, this technique has a great potential to be a better method for extraction of heat-labile natural products from propolis should optimization of conditions for extraction were further performed. 

As a natural resinous substance collected by honeybees from buds and exudates of trees, propolis is used by bees as a glue, general-purpose sealer, and draught extruder for beehives. In this paper, different extraction methods were employed to compare their efficiency in the extraction of bee propolis samples. The methods employed using ethanol as a solvent were the following: soaking method, ultrasonication method, and microwave method. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and spectroscopic methods such as absorbance and fluorescence were utilized to determine the amount of phenolic compounds extracted and compare each extraction's efficiency method. Results showed samples obtained from ultrasonication and microwave methods gave the highest yields. Both methods can be performed within a short time in comparison to the soaking method.