Olive and Olive Oil Bioactive Constituents

Book excerpt: The market is flooded with products posing as elixirs, supplements, functional foods, and olive oil alternatives containing phenols obtained from multiple olive sources. This technically-oriented book will be of value to nutritionists and researchers in the biosciences. It unravels the body of science pertaining to olive minor constituents in relation to new chemical knowledge, technological innovations, and novel methods of recovery, parallel to toxicology, pharmacology, efficacy, doses, claims, and regulation. Topics include: the biological importance of bioactive compounds present in olive products; developments and innovations to preserve the level of bioactives in table olives and olive oil; and importance of variety, maturity, processing of olives, storage, debittering of olives and table olives as a valuable source of bioactive compounds. - Presents detailed information concerning the claimed benefits of olive oil and discusses the permitted health claim to EFSA on oils with natural phenolics - Recovery of bioactive constituents from olive waste is comprehensively described - Explores the relationship betwen phenolic levels and sensory evaluation - Features chapters on the clinical and cellular mechanisms and health effects of olive, important for functional foods research