Propolis is one of the honey bee products that possess various traditional medicinal and pharmaceutical applications owing to its wide range of biological activities. The chemical composition of propolis mainly depends on the plant sources utilized by bees for its manufacturing. Identifying the plant source of propolis is then necessary for its chemical standardization as well as for the beekeepers to provide their bees with the proper plants in their flight range. Propolis has been classified worldwide into at least six types according to geographical origin and surrounding vegetation. However, no previous investigation of the plant source of Egyptian propolis has been reported. Hence, the plant materials surrounding the beehive where propolis had been collected were extracted similarily to propolis using different solvents, and subjected to thin layer chromatography (TLC). The developed chromatograms after being revealed with different techniques were captured using digital camera as a digitizing tool and then evaluated using the image analysis software. The obtained digital densitograms were processed by multivariate data analysis software to explore the inherent correlation between propolis and the surrounding plant materials. The elaborated model succeeded in exploring, for the first time, that Eucalyptus globulus Labill. Tree leaves is the main plant source of Egyptian propolis collected from University of Alexandria Agricultural Research Farm, Apiculture Unit.
