Carmelo Coppolinoa, Micaela Gallettab, Wadir M.V. Marchesielloa, Marina Russob, Francesco Cacciolaa, Paola Dugob,c, Luigi Mondellob,c

aDepartment of Biomedical, Dental, Morphological and Functional Imaging Sciences, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy;
bMessina Institute of Technology c/o Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, Former Veterinary School, University of Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy;
cChromaleont s.r.l., c/o Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, Former Veterinary School, University of Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy

The expansion of olive oil production resulted in the generation of a considerable quantity of solid and liquid by-products, the management of which represents a significant issue from both an economic and an environmental standpoint. Consequently, as they still contain high biological value compounds, they have considerable potential for reuse and valorisation in accordance with the principles of the circular economy. In this regard, olive leaves represent a particularly noteworthy agricultural biomass obtained from the pruning of olive trees. It is established that they are a rich source of various phytochemicals, including phenolic compounds, which exhibit antioxidant properties. 

The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the principal bioactive compounds present in olive leaves derived from three distinct Olea europaea cultivars. The olive leaves were subjected to solid-liquid extraction, after which the analyses were conducted using high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array and mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-PDA-MS). This analytical method has previously been successfully employed by our research group for the characterization of drupes, olive oil, and related wastes [1]. The method was validated in terms of limit of detection (LoD), limit of quantification (LoQ), linearity range, reproducibility, and repeatability. The recovery of the method yielded satisfactory results.

Acknowledgements: The researches were performed within the framework of the Research Project PRIN PNRR 2022- MISSIONE 4, COMPONENTE 2, INVESTIMENTO 1.1 - BANDO PRIN 2022 PNRR - DECRETO DIRETTORIALE N. 1409 DEL 14-09-2022: REcovery and Enhancement of WAste and processing products of the olive oil industry thRough innovative analytical methods for the Development of newly developed NUTRAceutical and COSMetic prOducts (REWARD-NUTRACOSMO), supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research, no. Prot. P20224ZHA5, CUP: J53D23014480001.

Keywords: HPLC, Biomass, Circular economy, polyphenols

References

1. Russo, Bonaccorsi, et al., Natural Product Research, 35(21) (2021), 4182-4187 DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2020.1752208