Usually, the following are listed as marketable olive tree products:
- Olive oil.
- Table olives.
- Cosmetics made with Olive Oil
- Biomass fuels derived from the cultivation of olive groves or from the manufacture of oil.
- Olive wood crafts.
The olive leaf – which is produced in large quantities during the pruning and harvesting of the olive – is not usually included in this list.
However, this biomass, from which 4.5 million tons a year are disposed of around the world, has a high potential in terms of obtaining natural ingredients and additives with high added value. In recent years, the possible toxicity of synthetic compounds has increased interest in natural products as food additives, in cosmetic formulation, and in the pharmaceutical industry.
For this reason, the investigation on the extraction of its compounds for its valorisation in the market is generating great expectations.
The OLEAF4VALUE project will apply advanced extraction and isolation technologies to sequentially separate the fractions and valuable compounds. Next, enzymatic biotransformation and nanoencapsulation technologies will be applied to develop product prototypes in line with the demand.
#CircularEconomy #Bioeconomy #OliveLeaf #Olives #Biomass #Horizon2020 #H2020