The olive tree, Olea europaea, is native to the Mediterranean basin and parts of Asia Minor. The fruit and compression-extracted oil have a wide range of therapeutic and culinary applications. Olive oil also constitutes a major component of the "Mediterranean diet." The chief active components of olive oil include oleic acid, phenolic constituents, and squalene. The main phenolics include hydro...

After decades of epidemiological, clinical and experimental research, it has become clear that consumption of Mediterranean dietary patterns rich in olive oil has a profound influence on health outcomes, including obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes mellitus. Traditionally, many beneficial properties associated with this oil have been ascribed to its high oleic acid content. Olive o...

Objective To identify adherence to Mediterranean diet among two groups of Spanish adults: diabetic patients and nondiabetic subjects. Methods Adherence to Mediterranean diet was measured by a 14-item screener (scale: 0-14; ≤5: low, 6-9: moderate, and ≥10: high) in 351 volunteers. Results Mean age was 50.97 ± 12.58 in nondiabetics (n = 154) and 59.50 ± 13.34 in diabetics (n = 197). The whole...

The objective of the research was to highlight the role that socio-economic and spatial attributes of consumers – households exert on their choices regarding not only the supply modes but also the price they are willing to pay for different categories of olive oil. Regarding WTP for different olive oil labels, consumers are willing to pay premiums only for olive oils being processed by either p...

The world productions of olive oil reach 2,800,000 ton and 98% of this production is to be found in the Mediterranean basin, where this agricultural system has been developed for thousands of years, characterized by its adaptation to the environment and its empiricism. Several factors have modified the olive production and processing systems in the last decades. The crisis of traditional agricu...

The operative conditions of malaxation such as temperature and time of exposure of olive pastes to air contact (TEOPAC) affect volatile and phenolic composition of virgin olive oil (VOO) and, as a consequence, its sensory and healthy qualities. In this paper, optimal temperature and TEOPAC during malaxation were studied, in lab scale, in two Italian cultivars using phenolic compounds, volatile ...

Olive oil is an important component of Mediterranean diet widely, consumed thanks to its numerous health-healing properties. Its quality dependent upon a set factors (genotypic, environmental, agronomic practices, ripening, etc). These are well documented, but little known about the impact extraction technology on ‘Moroccan Picholine’ olive quality. In this paper, physicochemical traits (cv Pic...

BACKGROUND The incidence of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in Crete was lower than expected on the basis of blood lipid concentrations of participants in the Seven Countries Study. A favorable effect of a high intake of olive oil on thrombogenesis may have contributed to this finding. OBJECTIVE We compared the effects of virgin olive oil with those of rapeseed and sunflower oils on blood coagul...

Phenolic composition of virgin olive oil is determined by the enzymatic and/or chemical reactions that take place during olive fruit processing. Of these enzymes, β-glucosidase activity plays a relevant role in the transformation of the phenolic glycosides present in the olive fruit, generating different secoiridoid derivatives. The main goal of the present study was to characterize olive fruit...