ABSTRACT
Over the last 20 years most of the major polar phenolic compounds present in virgin olive oil have been detected and quantied. These phenolic compounds may be phenolic acids, simple phenols like tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, secoiridoid derivatives of the glycosides oleuropein and ligstrodide, lignans, avonoids, and hydroxyl-isochromans (Caruso et al., 2000; Owen et al., 2000; Tovar et al., 2001; Servili and Montedoro, 2002; Romero, C. et al., 2002; Brenes et al., 2002; Gutierrez-Rosales et al., 2003; Gomez-Alonso et al., 2003; Cerretani et al., 2005a; Boskou, D. et al., 2006; Parenti et al., 2006; Fregapane et al., 2006; Romani et al., 2007; Bendini et al., 2007). The term “polar phenolic compounds” is used to differentiate them from another class of phenols, the tocopherols. Olive oil polar phenol fraction, known for many years as “polyphenols,” is in fact a complex mixture of compounds with varying chemical structures obtained from virgin olive oil by liquid-liquid partition with methanol/water (see Chapter 5).
