Page 423 - Biosystems Engineering

400 Cha pte r F o u r tee n

14.5 Future Biotechnological Applications
The use of olive polyphenols in different sectors, such as pharmaceuti-
cal, cosmetics, food industry, and medical, is being actively considered.
In the recent years, interest in olive mill by-products is increasing
because they could be used as a good source of bioactive olive poly-
phenols (Visioli et al. 1999; Fernández-Bolaˇnos et al. 2002).
At the moment, recovering olive phenols from olive mill waste-
water is the most promisings as a new biotechnology application.
Under this point of view, the wastewaters, generally considered only
as a polluting effluent, actually could furnish organic natural sub-
stances with considerable commercial value.
Possible uses of olive polyphenols recovered from olive mill by-
products are (1) as integrator and antioxidant in food, (2) as a pesti-
cide in agriculture, (3) for preventing and treating human diseases,
and (4) in cosmetics.
Interest on recovering and applying move after olive mill by-
products phenols is ongoing and includes remarkable biotechnologi-
cal perspectives.
Several methods exist to recover olive polyphenols in olive mill
by-products, including solvent extraction, chromatography on resin,
selective concentration by ultrafiltration and inverse osmosis, and
solid–liquid or liquid–liquid extraction (Fernández-Bola ˇnos et al. 2002).
The Table 14.3 lists recent patents relative to olive polyphenols.

Patent No. Purpose
EP811678 (1977) A process of extracting antioxidants from olives. The
final product contains hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, other
acid phenols, and oleuropein
WO0145514 (2001) A method for extracting antioxidants from olives,
olive paste, olive oil, and olive mill wastewater
WO02064537 (2002) A method for recovering hydroxytyrosol from olive
mill by-products
JP000319161 (2000) Using olive mill wastewater extract to produce
cosmetics
WO03079794 (2003) Using phenol olive leaves as antimicrobial agents
against aerobic and anaerobic germs
WO03080006 (2003) Using olive polyphenols as antidandruff agents
WO0004794 (2000) Process of recovering oleuropein from olive
WO0218310 (2002) vegetation water. Using phenol extract as a food
additive and an integrator tablet
CS2004A000001 Using oleuropein as an insecticide

TABLE 14.3 Recent Patents Relative to Olive Polyphenols