WASTE-WATERS FROM OLIVE OIL PRODUCTION ARE RICH IN NATURAL ANTIOXIDANTS

Milling of olive paste during olive oil production is accompanied by c ontinuous washing with water, i.e. malaxation. The resulting 'waste-wa ter' is currently discarded. Since olives and olive oil are rich in na tural antioxidants, we hypothesized that some of these might be extrac ted from the olive paste during malaxation, Interest in natural antiox idants is increasing because of the growing body of evidence indicatin g the involvement of oxygen-derived free radicals in several pathologi cal processes, such as cancer and atherosclerosis. A waste-water extra ct was characterized by HPLC and tested in a model of lipid peroxidati on, copper sulphate-induced oxidation of low density lipoproteins. The results demonstrate that waste-water extracts have powerful antioxida nt activity and might therefore represent a cheap, as yet unused, sour ce of natural antioxidants.