DETERMINATION OF INDONESIAN NATIVE STINGLESS BEE PROPOLIS AS COMPLEMENTARY NUTRACEUTICAL CANDIDATE OF ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS DRUG

Objective: This study aimed to determine Indonesian native stingless bee propolis from ten provinces of Indonesia as complementary nutraceutical candidate of anti-tuberculosis drug (ATD).Methods: Propolis samples were collected from stingless bee cultivated in ten provinces of Indonesia. The antioxidant capacity test was performed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and toxicity test was done using Brine Shrimp Lethality Test. The inhibition test of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) was performed using Lowenstein-Jensen medium and bacterial colonies were estimated using Most Probable Number.Results: The highest antioxidant capacity was found in Geniotrigona incisa (G. incisa) propolis from South Sulawesi Province with an IC50of 100.05 ppm, while the lowest antioxidant capacity was found in Tetragonula minangkabau propolis from North Sumatera Province with an IC50 of 1378.90 ppm. The lowest propolis toxicity was found in Geniotrigona thorasica propolis from South Kalimantan Province with an LC50of >1000.00, while the highest propolis toxicity was found in Tetragonula laeviceps (T. laeviceps) propolis from Banten Province with an LC50 of<50.00. T. laeviceps propolis from Banten Province had the lowest Mtb inhibition, with the inhibition value of 1.59%. On the other hand, the highest inhibition was shown by Tetragonula biroi propolis from South Sulawesi Province and Tetragonula fuscobalteata propolis from West Nusa Tenggara Province with 100% inhibition value (equivalent to rifampicin).Conclusion: Based on all determinant parameters, G. incisa propolis from South Sulawesi Province has the highest score, and it is defined as complementary nutraceutical candidate of ATD

On the maximal number of cubic subwords in a string

We investigate the problem of the maximum number of cubic subwords (of the form $www$) in a given word. We also consider square subwords (of the form $ww$). The problem of the maximum number of squares in a word is not well understood. Several new results related to this problem are produced in the paper. We consider two simple problems related to the maximum number of subwords which are squares or which are highly repetitive; then we provide a nontrivial estimation for the number of cubes. We show that the maximum number of squares $xx$ such that $x$ is not a primitive word (nonprimitive squares) in a word of length $n$ is exactly $\lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor - 1$, and the maximum number of subwords of the form $x^k$, for $k\ge 3$, is exactly $n-2$. In particular, the maximum number of cubes in a word is not greater than $n-2$ either. Using very technical properties of occurrences of cubes, we improve this bound significantly. We show that the maximum number of cubes in a word of length $n$ is between $(1/2)n$ and $(4/5)n$. (In particular, we improve the lower bound from the conference version of the paper.)Comment: 14 page