Abstract
The production of olive oil is accompanied by the generation of a huge amount of waste and by-products including olive leaves, pomace, and wastewater. The latter represents a relevant environmental issue because they contain certain phytotoxic compounds that may need specific treatments before the expensive disposal. Therefore, reducing waste biomass and valorizing by-products would make olive oil production more sustainable. Here, we explore the biological actions of extracts deriving from olive by-products including olive pomace (OP), olive wastewater (OWW), and olive leaf (OLs) in human colorectal carcinoma HCT8 cells. Interestingly, with the same phenolic concentration, the extract obtained from the OWW showed higher antioxidant ability compared with the extracts derived from OP and OLs. These biological effects may be related to the differential phenolic composition of the extracts, as OWW extract contains the highest amount of hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol that are potent antioxidant compounds. Furthermore, OP extract that contains a higher level of vanillic acid than the other extracts displayed a cytotoxic action at the highest concentration. Together these findings revealed that phenols in the by-product extracts may interfere with signaling molecules that cross-link several intracellular pathways, raising the possibility to use them for beneficial health effects.
Highlights
Olive cultivation is typical of Mediterranean countries and it is developed in several regions of the world having similar climate features [1]
The valorization of waste and by-products derived from the olive oil industry represents an attractive and sustainable challenge aiming to reduce the environmental impact and the disposal costs
In this study, the recovery of phenolic compounds was realized with hydro-alcoholic solutions for olive pomace (OP) and Olive Leaves (OLs) and ethyl acetate for Olive wastewater (OWW)
Summary
Olive cultivation is typical of Mediterranean countries and it is developed in several regions of the world having similar climate features [1]. By-products and waste from olive production and the olive oil industry represent a relevant environmental issue because they contain several compounds that may be phytotoxic [2]. OWW has high biological and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD) and very low pH that make this olive waste highly pollutant [3]. The growing demand for food increases the mass of waste and by-products in an unsustainable manner. In the last few years, novel approaches, based on the new concept of the circular economy, lead to reduce waste biomass and valorize by-products
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