Planta Med 2011; 77 - PG85
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282569

Polymeric biophenols in olive mill wastewaters

SM Cardoso 1, SI Falcão 2, AM Peres 3, OR Pereira 4, MR Domingues 5
  • 1CERNAS- Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Bencanta, 3040–316 Coimbra, Portugal; CIMO-Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Sta. Apolónia, 5301–855 Bragança, Portugal
  • 2CIMO- Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Sta. Apolónia, 5301–855 Bragança, Portugal
  • 3CIMO, LSRE- Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Sta. Apolónia, 5301–855 Bragança, Portugal
  • 4CERNAS- Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Bencanta, 3040–316 Coimbra, Portugal; Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Av. D. Afonso V, 5300–121 Bragança, Portugal
  • 5Centro de Espectrometria de Massa, Departamento de Química, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal

Olive mill wastewater (OMW), the effluents generated in the olive (Olea europaea L.) oil extraction industry operating in three-phases mode, are phytotoxic mainly due to its high phenolic content [1]. On the other hand, attending to the potential health-benefits of some of their phenolic compounds, OMW are now regarded as a potent source of biophenols for food and pharmaceutical industries. An important portion of the OMW biophenols include the secoiridoids found in olive pulp and their derivatives formed along the olive oil extraction process [2]. Still, due to the complex composition of OMW, many phenolic compounds remain unknown. Their structural identification can encourage the search of new bioactive compounds in OMW and contribute to further valorize this waste.

In the present work, electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry analysis in the negative mode with direct infusion of OMW aqueous acetone purified extracts allowed to identify new major polymeric compounds, detected as [M-H]- ions at m/z 909, 1071, 1457, 1075 and 1613. These compounds could be classified into two groups: I- derivatives of a ligstroside glucoside isomer and II- oleuropein oligomeric compounds. Attending that the scavenging ability of a polyphenolic compound is increased by its degree of polymerization [3], bioactivities related to that capacity are expected at least for some of these compounds.

Figure 1: New secoiridoids in olive mill wastewaters

Acknowledgement: Work supported by Fundação para Ciência e a Tecnologia, project Biotechnological valorization of olive mill wastewaters (OMWalor) – PTDC/AMB/69379/2006

References: 1. Casa R et al. (2003) Chemosphere 50: 959–966.

2. Obied HK et al. (2007) Anal Chim Acta 603: 176–189.

3. Roesler R et al. (2007) Food Chem 104: 1048–1054.