Phenolic and antioxidant potential of olive oil mill wastes

Olive oil mill waste was subjected to conventional liquid solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction using different solvents and carbon dioxide, respectively. The optimum solvent extraction conditions of phenols were 180 min using ethanol, at a solvent to sample ratio 5:1 v/w, and at pH 2. Solvent and SFE extracts were tested for their antioxidant activity by the DPPH radical scavenging method and by determination of peroxide value on virgin olive oil and sunflower oil. The ethanol extract exhibited the highest antiradical activity, and no correlation was found between antiradical activity and phenol content. The SFE extract exerted good antioxidant capacity although its phenolic yield was not quite high. Moreover, the ethanol extract appeared to be a stronger antioxidant than BHT, ascorbyl palmitate and vitamin E by the Rancimat method on sunflower oil. HPLC analysis of the extracts showed that the predominant phenolic compound was hydroxytyrosol. Various phenolic acids and flavonoids were also identified.