The name Propolis comes from the Greek and means "in front of city". Symbolic the Greek meant the guards in front of the cities. They should warn the inhabitants early enough if intruders would enter the city. It is not known who invented this word but this person had a great knowledge of propolis and bees because the name shows the main effect of it: In the beehive propolis acts as a highly effective natural antibiotic. Propolis prevent diseases and parasits from entering the beehive.

Already in the ancient world people knew the effect of propolis but in the course of time it was nearly forgotten (as well as other valuable bees products). Bees require propolis to reinforce the structural stability of the beehive, to grout rifts, to constrict the entrance and to mummify all foreign bodies they are unable to carry out through the beehive entrance (including making them odorless and harmless).
Bees collect propolis from resin donating barks and buds of trees. The resin content amounts 10-70%, the wax content 15-40 % and the oil content 2-10 %. Furthermore propolis contains 5-25% unsoluble substances. Chemical tests devoted that propolis contains amino acids (protein building blocks), vitamins, trace elements, enzymes, valuable fatty acids, colourants and antibiotic acting substances.

Extract propolis is obtained by the purification and extraction of crude propolis by ethanol. The impurities such as waxes and pollen are removed from the crude propolis, resulting in a proportion of pure propolis of 95% and more.
The ground substance is a hard to tough rubbery chunk, which appears black to blackish-brown or reddish-brown, depending on the types of resin in the raw propolis. Other extraction methods, such as CO2 extraction, may even result in pale to milky white Propolis Extract. In addition to the proportion of pure propolis, especially the proportion of flavonoids, which should be at least 15 %, is a quality feature of the extract.