Modern scientific studies highlight extra virgin olive oil as one of the most valuable goods for the protection of human health. The quality of olive oil depends on many factors and is characterized by its content of specific health-protective components.
A group of Greek scientists, known for some time in Messinia, led by Prokopios Mayatis, assistant professor of Pharmacognosy and Natural Product Chemistry at the University of Athens, developed a new method for measuring the levels of the bioactive compounds oleocanthal and oleasin in olive oil, offering a new tool to distinguish how "healthy" each oil is.
Oleocanthal has an anti-inflammatory effect similar to the drug ibuprofen, while oleasin is the most powerful antioxidant component of olive oil. However, until now their quantitative measurement in olive oil had various technical difficulties, according to Mr. Mayatis. Together with his team, they developed a new method for distinguishing olive oils using 1H-NMR nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which directly measures the levels of oleocanthal and oleasin.
The huge qualitative differences between olive oils make it necessary to develop and apply more and more ways to determine and evaluate the components of olive oil with beneficial effects on human health. All olive oils that meet the conditions to be characterized as extra virgin, does not mean that they show the same percentages of bioactive substances. Precisely for this reason, this new method comes to determine the levels of these substances in olive oil and to highlight the quality of Greek oils. As Mr. Maiatis typically states: "The new method makes it possible to identify the differences between extra virgin olive oils and thus to classify them according to their potential health benefits."
