11 - Recovery of High Added Value Compounds from Olive Tree Products and Olive Processing Byproducts

Abstract

Olive oil and table olives are rich in bioactive natural compounds. Both the cultivation of olive trees and the process of industrial olive oil and table olive production generate enormous quantities of solid wastes and dark liquid effluents, most of them with no practical applications. These wastes contain considerable amounts of valuable substances such as carbohydrates, organic acids, mineral nutrients, oils, fibers, and phenols that are variably distributed among the different wastes, depending on the process followed for the production of oil and table olives and the agronomic practices. These wastes are either exploitable at low technological and economical levels or, in the worst case, are disposed in nature, creating major environmental problems. Among the compounds reported in these materials, the phenolic compounds constitute an interesting group endowed with a wide array of biological activities. The main byproducts of the olive processing industry that this chapter describes are: (1) olive leaves, (2) olive pomace, (3) Olive Oil Mill Waste Water (OMWW), and (4) Table Olive Processing Wastewater (TOPW). The chapter focuses on their content in valuable components, the applied valorization methods and techniques for their recovery, and their possible applications in the market.