We all know that propolis is basically insoluble in water, and soaking in wine is the main way to use propolis. Even if it is a regular propolis company, the way they purify propolis is simply to make wine, but the process will be more complicated.
Ordinary people do not have professional equipment at home, and the simple operation of propolis soaking wine is to make a glass container, freeze the propolis and crush it into small particles (the smaller the easier it is), pour it into the liquor and seal it, and stir it once every two or three days.
So how many degrees of wine is good for propolis soaking? The liquor we can usually buy in our lives has an alcohol content of only forty or fifty degrees, is it appropriate to soak propolis in such a liquor?
How many degrees of wine bubble propolis has a high dissolution rate and a high content of active ingredients. In this regard, some scholars have done special experiments.
Zhang Hongcheng et al. (2013), the Institute of Bees, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, froze and crushed the propolis and soaked it in water, anhydrous alcohol, and % concentration of alcohol. The total flavonoid content and total phenolic acid content were then measured by two methods. The results showed that alcohol content had a great effect on the content of total phenols and total flavonoids and the types of polyphenols in propolis extract. The overall extraction effect is 75% alcohol, 95% alcohol, anhydrous alcohol, 50% alcohol, 25% alcohol, and water.
The team of Professor Hu Fuliang from the College of Animal Science of Zhejiang University conducted a study on the effect of ethanol concentration on the extraction effect of propolis in China, and found that: (1) when the ethanol concentration was below 60%, the extraction rate of propolis was low, and the extraction rate of propolis increased rapidly with the increase of ethanol concentration; When the ethanol concentration was above 60%, the change of propolis extraction rate tended to be stable.
2) When the ethanol concentration was below 60%, the total flavonoids content of propolis increased rapidly with the increase of ethanol concentration. When the ethanol concentration reaches 60%, most of the total flavonoids in propolis can be extracted. When the ethanol concentration was 60% to 75%, the total flavonoids of propolis decreased, and increased after it was higher than 75%. The total flavonoid content reaches its maximum when the ethanol concentration is 85%, followed by the 95% ethanol concentration, which is also high in total flavonoids.
3) When the concentration of ethanol is 0 40%, most of the phenolic compounds in propolis can be extracted, and the total phenol content is the highest at 20% concentration; However, as the ethanol concentration increased, the total phenol content decreased. There are many water-soluble substances in total phenols, if the two indicators of total flavonoids and total phenols are taken into account, 60% ethanol should be used for propolis wine.
Based on the results of the above two studies, it can be seen that if you only soak it once, it is relatively better to use 60 or 75 degrees of liquor or edible alcohol to soak propolis.
If you use high liquor to soak propolis, because high liquor is more irritating to the human body, it is recommended to mix it with water or use it externally.