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The recent interest in the biological effects of dietary antioxidants of phenolic and
flavonoid nature is underlined by various reports, indicating that the daily intake of few
tens of milligrams of flavonoid reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in large
population groups. Although the mechanisms responsible for these effects need to be
elucidated and information on the bioavailability of these compounds is limited, these
data strongly support the current interest for research in this area.
Attention in the area of atherosclerosis has been focused on the enhanced atherogenic properties of oxidatively modified low density lipoproteins (LDL) and, consequently, on the role of antioxidants, in addition to the type of fat, in the diet in the pathogenesis of CHD. The Mediterranean diet is rich in antioxidants present in fruit, vegetables, legumes, grain, in addition to olive oil, in which the major antioxidant protection is provided by appreciable content in simple and complex phenols.
In this context, minor polar compounds present in olives and first pressure olive oil are
potential antioxidant, which play an important role in the stability and shelf life of
this product. The polyphenolic fraction amounts up to 800 mg/l in first pressure oil,
depending upon various condition (cultivar, climate, degrees of ripeness of the fruit, and
its handling). The antioxidant compound present in the oil, are obvioisly derived from
olives and are found also in the water phase. In fact, due to the chemical characteristics
of polyphenols, the partition between oil and water is different; so that the major
proportion of these compounds can be found mainly in the acqueous phase (i.e.<1% in the
olive oil, approx. 18% in olives). During the processing of olives into oil therefore, a
large fraction of the polyphenols is lost in mill wastewater.
This indicates thast raw mill water is a rich source of compounds endowed of antioxidant and other biological activities
Olives are rich in simple and complex phenolic compounds with potent antioxidant
properties, which may have a protective action on human healt. During olive oil
processing, however, a large fraction of these phenols is lost in mill wastewater and
puored into the mediterranean environment.
The aim of the proposed research is to improve the knowledge on the biological activities
of antioxidant phenols obtained from olive oil processing wastewater, and to define
procedures for their extraction and valorization as healt food supplements and/or natural
food antioxidant
- Second annual meeting