Cytotoxicity of propolis nanopreparations in cancer cell monolayers: multimode of action including apoptotsis and nitric oxide production.

Natural products are invaluable resource of anticancer drug discovery. They generally viewed as safe but weak, within the framework of nanotechnology, they can serve as template for potent anticancer drugs. We first evaluated the cytotoxic activity of different propolis extracts (water, 70% ethanol, absolute ethanol and hexane) in many cancer cell lines, then the solid nanoparticles from the organic solvent extracts were prepared and their cytotoxicity was evaluated as well.