No abstract

Phenolic compounds are well known for their health benefits related to antioxidant activity. In addition, this kind of compounds can be extracted from natural sources, such as olives, grapes, fruits, vegetables, rice, spices, herbs, tea and algae, among others. In this way, these compounds have increased their popularity and, little by little, the consumers are more interested in these compounds due to the fact that they come from natural sources and because they have health biological activity. In fact, other important characteristics associated to phenolic compounds are the antimicrobial activity, because phenolics have the capacity of retarding the microbial invasion in some products and avoiding the putrefaction of others, mainly fruits and vegetables. These properties allow phenolic compounds to be suitable for numerous food preservation applications. Therefore, different kinds of products can be fortificated with phenolic compounds to extend the shelf life of some foods, to turn them in functional food or to incorporate them in food packaging. Active packing is an innovative strategy where phenolic compounds can play an important role for improving the global assessment and extend the shelf life of commercial products.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Olive leaves are an important low-cost source of bioactive compounds. The present study aimed to examine the effect of in vitro digestibility of an olive leaf aqueous extract so as to prove the availability of its phenolic compounds as well as its antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activity after a simulated digestion process. The total phenolic content was significantly higher in the pure lyophilized extract. Phenolic compounds, however, decreased by 60% and 90% in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF), respectively. Regarding antioxidant activity, it was reduced by 10% and 50% after gastric and intestinal digestion, respectively; despite this fact, high antioxidant capacity was found in both SGF and SIF. Moreover, the olive leaf extract showed an unusual combined antimicrobial action at low concentration, which suggested their great potential as nutraceuticals, particularly as a source of phenolic compounds. Finally, olive leaf extracts produced a general dose-dependent cytotoxic effect against U937 cells. To sum up, these findings suggest that the olive leaf aqueous extract maintains its beneficial properties after a simulated digestion process, and therefore its regular consumption could be helpful in the management and the prevention of oxidative stress-related chronic disease, bacterial infection, or even cancer. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

No abstract