Acaricidal Effect of Propolis against Hyalomma Spp. Ticks and As-sessment of Its Toxicity with the MTT Assay

Background: The Hyalomma species is one of the most important vectors of pathogens responsible for human and animal diseases. The use of substances of natural source has been proposed as a safe way to control ticks. We aimed to evaluate the acaricidal activity of hydroalcoholic extract of honey bee propolis against the Hyalomma spp. in vitro and to determine its toxicity by MTT assay. Methods: The acaricidal activity of propolis in concentrations of 50, 100, 150, and 200 mg/ml was investigated after 15, 30 and 60 minutes by two spray and contact methods. The main compounds of propolis were carried out with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS). Then the toxicity of each concentration was evaluated by MTT assay. Data were analyzed by GraphPad Prism 6 software. Results: The concentration of 200 mg/ml of propolis had the highest acaricidal effect (90%) in the exposure time of 60 minutes and spray method was more effective than the contact method. The GC-MS analysis identify that Hexane (CAS); n-Hexane (17.32%) is the main ingredient of propolis. The results of the MTT toxicity test showed that toxicity increases with increasing concentration, and low concentrations of propolis have very little toxicity. Conclusion: The hydroalcoholic extract of propolis contains potent acaricidal compounds and it might be used as a natural acaricide compound to against Hyalomma spp. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the propolis.