Safety indicators of propolis in some regions of Russia

Environmental pollution with toxic elements poses a serious threat to human health. Of all bee products, propolis is the most contaminated one. The purpose of the work is to study the dynamics of the level of contamination with heavy metals (lead and cadmium) of propolis in the regions of Russia. The object of the research was propolis samples from the Krasnodar Territory, the Republic of Adygea, the Chechen Republic, the Voronezh, Volgograd and Ryazan regions, collected in the period 2004-2021. Propolis sampling was carried out according to GOST 28886-19. The content of chemical elements was determined by spectrophotometry, on a Spectr AA 220FS atomic absorption spectrophotometer, using an air-acetylene flame on a gas atomizer. A certain amount of lead in the propolis of the Krasnodar Territory in different years exceeds the MPC standards by 3.8-12.33 times. The amount of lead in the samples of the Volgograd region exceeds the MPC by 15.16 times; Voronezh region - 11.35 times; Republic of Adygea - 8.32 times. The excess of the maximum allowable concentration of lead in the propolis of the Ryazan region in different years of collection ranged from 1.41 to 13.19 times. In the current regulatory documentation (SanPiN 2.3.2. 1078-01; TR CU 021/2011), the content of cadmium in propolis is standardized at 1.0 mg/kg, in the studied samples of propolis, the concentration of cadmium meets the requirements of regulatory documentation and does not exceed the MPC. The obtained experimental data on a sufficiently high lead content in propolis in the studied areas (Republic of Adygea, Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd Region, Voronezh Region, Ryazan Region) show the need to adjust the maximum allowable standards (SanPiN 2.3.2. 1078-01) for the content of lead in propolis. The samples of native propolis can be used as bioindicators in apimonitoring of regions contaminated with heavy metals and toxic elements.