A new antihypertensive substance in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) was recently discovered by researchers from the Department of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry in the University of Athens. MILESTONE® Olive Oil was chosen for the isolation of the compound because in our oil the NMR peak was one of the highest among the 2120 samples that were recently analysed. The researchers concluded that elenolide is a potential antihypertensive substance of EVOO and its concentration is a potential marker of high quality oils with low water content.

It is the first time that the precise structure of elenolide is characterized by NMR and the first time that elenolide is proved to be artificially transformed to elenolic acid during usual chromatography in aqueous media.

This research has been supported by the ARISTOIL project under the INTERREG MED EU programme. Prof. Prokopios Magiatis & Prof. Eleni Meliou at the 11th With Food to Health Conference held in Split Croatia – Department of Pharmacognosy & Natural Products Chemistry, Univ. of Athens