Abstract
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) phenols represent a significant part of the intake of antioxidants and bioactive compounds in the Mediterranean diet. In particular, hydroxytyrosol (HTyr), tyrosol (Tyr), and the secoiridoids oleacein and oleocanthal play central roles as anti-inflammatory, neuro-protective and anti-cancer agents. These compounds cannot be easily obtained via chemical synthesis, and their isolation and purification from EVOO is cumbersome. Indeed, both processes involve the use of large volumes of organic solvents, hazardous reagents and several chromatographic steps. In this work we propose a novel optimized procedure for the green extraction, isolation and purification of HTyr, Tyr, oleacein and oleocanthal directly from EVOO, by using a Natural Deep Eutectic Solvent (NaDES) as an extracting phase, coupled with preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. This purification method allows the total recovery of the four components as single pure compounds directly from EVOO, in a rapid, economic and ecologically sustainable way, which utilizes biocompatible reagents and strongly limits the use or generation of hazardous substances.
Highlights
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) represents one of the most important sources of biologically active compounds and antioxidants in the Mediterranean diet [1,2,3,4,5]
We propose a novel strategy for and the oleocanthal in a single chromatographic step, using natural deep eutectic solvent (NaDES)
Previous papers reported the extraction of EVOO polyphenols using deep eutectic solvents for the analytical determination of EVOO polyphenols, but no studies were carried out on the application and optimization of the extraction and preparative purification of these four compounds [40,41,42,43,44]
Summary
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) represents one of the most important sources of biologically active compounds and antioxidants in the Mediterranean diet [1,2,3,4,5]. Hydroxytyrosol (HTyr), tyrosol (Tyr), oleacein and oleocanthal are the main compounds responsible for the beneficial effects of EVOO as part of the Mediterranean diet (Figure 1) [9,10]. These compounds possess a strong antioxidant activity, and HTyr and oleocanthal in particular have a synergistic marked anti-inflammatory effect [11,12,13,14]. The scientific relevance of and interest in oleocanthal is mainly due to its potent anti-inflammatory effect (several times more active than other FANS, e.g., Ibuprofen), its selective
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