13th ASEAN Food Conference, 9-11 September 2013, Singapore Meeting Future Food Demands: Security & Sustainability 1 Classification of Trigona spp bee propolis from four regions in Indonesia using FTIR metabolomics approach Nancy Dewi Yuliana 1,2* , C. Hanny Wijaya 1,2 , Nanang Nasrullah 3 1 SEAFAST Center, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia 2 Dept. Food Science and Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia 3 Graduate School of Food Science, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia * Corresponding author: nancy_dewi@ipb.ac.id Abstract Numerous researches have reported the biological activities of propolis collected worldwide, but information about Indonesian propolis, particularly from Trigona spp. bee are still absent. The objective of this research is to classify propolis from four regions: West Nusa Tenggara, West Java, West Kalimantan and South Sulawesi based on their metabolites and antioxidant activity profiles. FTIR based metabolomics assisted by OPLS analysis was applied for this purposes. OPLS analysis result showed that propolis from West Kalimantan, West Java and South Sulawesi were grouped separately from West Nusa Tenggara. The first showed stronger antioxidant activity than the second. OPLS loading plot showed that the main differences between the two groups were attributed to flavonoids and phenolics content. This was supported by Pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.90) which showed that phenolics and flavonoids content of propolis was positively correlated with its antioxidant activity. West Kalimantan propolis had the highest total flavonoid and polyphenol contents and the highest antioxidant activity (20,22 ± 2,45 mg/g QE, 97,4 ± 0,2 mg/g GAE, IC50 = 0,54 ± 0,06 μg/ml, respectively). These results showed that the composition of Trigona spp. propolis chemical constituents and its antioxidant activity do vary according to its geographical origin. Keywords Propolis, Trigona bee, antioxidant, metabolomics, FTIR 1. Introduction Indonesia has many local honey bees. Trigona spp. is not so popular as it produces only small amount of honey, but it produces propolis in a higher quantity than other bees. Although numerous researchers have reported the biological activities of propolis collected worldwide, information about Indonesian propolis particularly from Trigona spp. is very rare. Propolis (bee glue) is a resinous substance collected by honey bees from various plant sources mixed with wax and is used in their nest construction [1]. Propolis has been reported to possess various biological activities such as antimicrobial, antifungal, anticancer, and antioxidant activities [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The complex constituents and properties of propolis are different from each other depend on location and plant of origin [2, 4, 5, 6, 7]. These variations were reported to have an effect on its bioactivity. Some researches have examined the correlation between phenolics and flavonoids content with antioxidant activity of propolis [8]. However, it is possible that other compounds may have influence to the antioxidant activity as well. In such a case, metabolomics approach can be very useful. Metabolomics is defined as a comprehensive analysis of metabolites present in a cell, tissue, or organism under certain condition and at specific time, quantitatively and/or qualitatively [9, 10]. The objective of this research is to apply metabolomic in the classification of propolis from four regions in Indonesia based on its metabolite and its antioxidant activity profiles. Those four regions are West Nusa Tenggara, West Java, West Kalimantan and South Sulawesi. Since the composition of propolis may vary according to its origin, the intensity of antioxidant activity may be different as well. FTIR was used to measure the spectra of propolis in order to examine the metabolites