Verbascoside, Isoverbascoside, and Their Derivatives Recovered from Olive Mill Wastewater as Possible Food Antioxidants

Olive oil processing industries generate substantial quantities of phenolic-rich byproducts, which could be valuable natural sources of antioxidants. This work is focused on the recovery and structural characterization of antioxidant compounds from olive mill wastewater (OMWW), a polluting byproduct of the olive oil production process. Phenolics were extracted from the waste material using a membrane technology coupled to low-pressure gel filtration chromatography on a Sephadex LH-20. The LH-20 fraction was, in turn, characterized for its phenolic composition by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS analyses. Verbascoside, isoverbascoside, beta-hydroxyverbascoside, beta-hydroxyisoverbascoside, and various oxidized phenolics were identified. Uptake of verbascoside, purified from the LH-20 fraction, by HT-29 cells, an established model system for studying drug transport properties, was also assayed. Finally, the antioxidant activities of the LH-20 fraction and verbascoside were characterized by two different techniques. Individual verbascoside was more active as a scavenger of reactive oxygen species and as a chemopreventive agent protecting low-density lipoproteins from oxidative damage than the LH-20 fraction.