Table Olives: A Vehicle for the Delivery of Bioactive Compounds

Table olives and olive oil are sources of compounds with important biological properties and essential components of the Mediterranean Diet. For a long period the scientific community focused its attention mainly on the beneficial effects of olive oil on health. The importance of the edible processed fruit was rather overlooked. Table olives contain a large amount of high quality fat, essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, fiber and a group of minor compounds, which include biophenols and pentacyclic triterpenes. In the last decade an effort is seen in the literature to re-evaluate table olives as sources of bioactive compounds. There is an impressive increase of papers dealing with the composition of processed olives, the effect of variety and processing methods on the level of antioxidants and other minor bioactive constituents, and generally the improvement of healthy features. The information, however, is rather scattered and not all the publications are of the same scientific level. There are many repetitions but also discrepancies and blanks due to difficulties deriving from the complex nature of phenols, the biochemical routes related to lactic acid and other fermenting bacteria and the analytical results, considering the lack of standard methods for the quantitation of small or minute quantities of bioactive compounds The present review discusses table olives as a vehicle for the delivery of bioactive compounds. It concentrates mainly on the levels of bioactive compounds in relation to the treatment of olive fruits and the expected healthy features and functionality.