Over the past ten years, the main research interests of the Olive Research Group focused on the study of olive products (olive fruits and olive oils) and by-products (wastewater of edible olives debittering process, Olive mills waste, olive leaves), emphasising on their qualitative and quantitative chemical composition, the evaluation of their bioactive ingredients on chronic human diseases and the isolation of new molecules from olive-based materials.
Specifically, the major activities of the Olive Research Group areꓽ (a) the development and application methodologies for the extraction and isolation of bioactive compounds from olive products and by-products, on both laboratory and pilot scale, targeting their utilization in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food supplements, (b) the estimation of the qualitative and quantitative chemical composition of olive products and by-products through the development of specific protocols using both classical techniques and modern analytical methodologies of high sensitivity, (c) the determination of the total phenolic content of olive oil, the number of peroxides, the acidity, the K-constants, and the content of their individual phenolic components (such as hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, oleacein, oleocanthal, etc.) and, (d) the evaluation of biological activity of the individual components/phenolic extracts/enriched fractions of olive products and by-products, on chronic human diseases. In addition, during the last five years, the Olive Research Group has started and continues until now to carry out an extensive study on mapping Greek olive oil, based on their phenolic content. This study includes more than 5.000 samples of olive oil, collected from the major olive-growing regions of Greece, and produced from different varieties of olive tree, olive-cultivating, and olive-oil processing methods. The research activity of the Group is also intense in the identification and isolation of new molecules from olive-based materials. Recently, the Group, using state-of-the-art technologies, has been able to identify and isolate three new natural products from olive oil called Oleocanthalic acid, Oleaceinic acid and a derivative of Elenolic acid. This work has been published in a reputable scientific journal, while the research on the above-mentioned molecules continues, studying their biological activity in overseas laboratories.
All methodologies applied are based on state-of-the-art technologies:
• Extraction
– Accelerated Pressure Extraction – Pressurized Liquid Extraction,
– Centrifugal Partition Extraction,
– Supercritical Fluid Extraction
– Ultrasound Extraction
– Microwave Extraction
• Isolation
– Centrifugal Partition Chromatography,
– Supercritical Fluid Chromatography system interfaced with a Diode Array Detector and Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer,
– Prep-High Performance Liquid Chromatography interfaced with a Diode Array Detector,
– Medium Pressure Liquid Chromatography
• Molecular Structure Characterisation and Structural Elucidation
– Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers with automated sampler, 400 and 600 MHz,
– Polarimeter
– UV/vis spectrophotometers,
– Infrared Spectrometer
• Chemical analysis
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Hybrid Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer,
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer,
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Diode Array Detector and Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers,
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer,
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Fluorometric detector,
– Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Diode Array Detector,
– High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Diode Array Detector,
-High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Circular Dichroism Detector,
– High Pressure Liquid Chromatography system interfaced with Evaporative Light Scattering Detector,
– High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC),
– Gas Chromatography system coupled with Mass Spectrometer.
• Production of extracts and isolated compounds on pilot scale
Olive Research Group has the know-how and access to a fully equipped pilot production unit for natural products, rendering it completely capable of producing bioactive extracts as well as high purity isolated compounds from olive products and by-products. Specifically, this Unit includes:
– Extraction units 500 & 100 L
– Essential oil distillation device 50 L
– Vacuum concentrator of capacities of 60 and 200L
– Evaporators of organic solvent in vacuum, Rotavapors, (20 L)
– Closed circuit device for 10L reactions
– Semi-pilot extraction apparatus using 5L supercritical fluids and column capacity for liquid sample processing
– Liquid-liquid extraction capacity of 5 L/h
– Spray dryer for the production of dry extracts with a capacity of 5 to 7 kg/h
– Maceration type extractor with 2 tons capacity
– Adsorbent resins 150&450, for enrichment of plant extracts
This unit is capable of handling the extraction and distillation of large quantities of raw material, the evaporation of large volumes of solvents, the selective isolation of natural products and their formulation.