Valorization of an Underutilized Waste from Olive Oil Production by Recovery of Hydroxytyrosol

Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants, mainly contained in olive oil and its by-products. Here, a procedure for the preparation of an HT-enriched sample is described. An acidic aqueous extract (pH 1.25) from Olive Oil Dregs (OOD), a by-product from oil mills, was prepared by incubation at 37 degrees C for 1 h. The total phenolic content and HT amount were 6.24 +/- 0.10 mg gallic acid equivalent/g OOD and 532.98 +/- 5.78 mu g/g OOD, respectively. Amberlite XAD16N and XAD7HP resins were used for the recovery of HT from the raw extract. Several elution conditions were tested with both resins, and elution with 25% ethanol provided the highest HT recovery (92.50% from XAD7HP). Antioxidant activities were assessed in the pool containing the highest quantity of HT. The results were compared with those of the raw extract. Ferric reducing antioxidant power values were comparable (95.71 +/- 2.50 and 96.64 +/- 13.47 mu g ascorbic acid equivalent/mg for HT-enriched pool and raw extract, respectively), while the radical scavenging activity was higher for the pool (92.83% +/- 0.44 and 44.12% +/- 1.82, respectively). The results reported here demonstrate that HT can be recovered with a high yield from OOD, providing a preparation with high radical scavenging power. In addition, it is proved that this by-product, poorly considered up to now, can be usefully exploited.