Oleocanthal, a Phenolic Derived from Virgin Olive Oil: A Review of the Beneficial Effects on Inflammatory Disease

Abstract

Virgin olive oil (VOO) is credited as being one of many healthful components of the Mediterranean diet. Mediterranean populations experience reduced incidence of chronic inflammatory disease states and VOO is readily consumed as part of an everyday dietary pattern. A phenolic compound contained in VOO, named oleocanthal, shares unique perceptual and anti-inflammatory characteristics with Ibuprofen. Over recent years oleocanthal has become a compound of interest in the search for naturally occurring compounds with pharmacological qualities. Subsequent to its discovery and identification, oleocanthal has been reported to exhibit various modes of action in reducing inflammatory related disease, including joint-degenerative disease, neuro-degenerative disease and specific cancers. Therefore, it is postulated that long term consumption of VOO containing oleocanthal may contribute to the health benefits associated with the Mediterranean dietary pattern. The following paper summarizes the current literature on oleocanthal, in terms of its sensory and pharmacological properties, and also discusses the beneficial, health promoting activities of oleocanthal, in the context of the molecular mechanisms within various models of disease.

Preparative isolation of oleocanthal, tyrosol, and hydroxytyrosol from olive oil by HPCCC

“…OLC elicits this irritation via the same mechanisms as ibuprofen (Peyrot des Gachons et al, 2011;Bennett & Hayes, 2012) and mimics the anti-inflammatory activities of ibuprofen via the inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes at almost equimolar concentrations (Beauchamp et al, 2005;Lucas et al, 2011). Recently, several other potentially health promoting activities of OLC were described (Parkinson & Keast, 2014), such as 1) the enhancement of amyloid-β clearance from the brain (Abuznait, Qosa, Busnena, El Sayed & Kaddoumi, 2013) and the modulation of the fibrillization of tau protein (Monti, Margarucci, Riccio & Casapullo, 2012), both important mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases;…”

Clustering eating habits: frequent consumption of different dietary patterns among the Italian general population in the association with obesity, physical activity, sociocultural characteristics and psychological factors

“…Over the last few years, multiple evidence on the apparent relationship between nutrition and chronic degenerative diseases have led investigators to search for the optimal dietary patterns to maintain a good health status [1]. Mediterranean diet (Med-diet), in particular, is largely recognized to be effective in positively impacting heart disease [2][3][4][5][6] and inflammatory disease [7,8]. The Mediterranean diet does not stand for a homogenous and exclusive model across the Mediterranean basin population but rather represents a set of healthy dietary habits, including high consumption of vegetables and fresh fruit associated with the use of olive oil as the main source of fat, epidemiological evidence suggests that several of these dietary patterns have been favorably associated with the prevention of obesity and type 2 diabetes.…”

Recent data on Mediterranean diet, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and life expectancy

“…Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures that protect the ends of eukaryocyte chromosomes. In depth research on MD supports a novel role of MD in promoting health span, suggesting that telomere maintenance is the major determinant of health among the elderly (17). Shorter telomere length is associated with several age-related human disorders and subsequent shorter LE.…”

“…oleocanthal) that by exerting an anti-infl ammatory and anti-oxidative effect can be involved in the reduction of age-related pathologies, such as cardiovascular, neoplastic, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases (17). The scientifi c explanation of such benefi cial effects was limited to the reduction of the oxidative stress by compounds present in the MD.…”