Cellular and Molecular Effects of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds in Olives and Olive Oil

This chapter explores the traditional medicinal properties and early uses of olives and olive oil and discusses the evolution and health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. It focuses on the cellular and molecular effects of bioactive phenolic compounds in olives and olive oil. The chapter also reviews wound healing, cardiovascular effects, and anticancer properties of the major phenolics, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein. Accumulating evidence suggests the emerging value of phenolic compounds as potent anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant factors that contribute substantially to the health advantages of an olive oil-dominant diet. The phenol constituents in olives, and by extension olive oil, are many, numbering 36 distinct phenols that show considerable variation in both presence and concentration as determined by the olive variant, ripeness, and location of cultivation. The assessment of structural components of phenolic molecules has enabled the determination of relationships between individual phenolic constituents as well as the identification of the potential origins of the biological effects stimulated by phenolic compounds. This is exemplified by the compound and structural component, elenolic acid. A defining structural component of the secoiridoid group of olive phenolic compounds, elenolic acid finds itself integrated within oleuropein, dimethyoleuropein, ligstroside, and elenolic acid-linked hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol. Its presence within certain phenolic compounds allows differentiation of biological activity within otherwise identical or similar compounds that are devoid of its presence. This is true in the instance of hydroxytyrosol (3,4-DHPEA) and elenolic acid-linked hydroxytyrosol (3,4-DHPEA-EDA), for which a comparison study indicated a greater than 50% favor of elenolic acid-linked hydroxytyrosol in cell apoptotic percentage, comparable to catalase-induced apoptosis.