Environmentally Sustainable Preparation of Oleuropein and Its Dialdehydic Derivatives in a Simple Pharmaceutical Formulation

In this paper, Krapcho’s one-step decarbomethoxylation ofoleuropein in DES is reported. Oleuropein used as reagent wasextracted with water from olive leaves, widely available andinexpensive waste from the olive oil production chain. Thereaction has been carried out in a series of ChCl-based DES ofincreasing acidity, with or without the addition of an amount ofwater, under microwave and conventional heating. The anti-oxidant power of the best reaction mixture, both in terms ofbiocompatibility of the medium and conversion of the startingmaterial, was measured and compared with a natural phenolicmixture coming from EVOO. The reported results indicate thatthe formulation deriving by the Krapcho’s one-step decarbome-thoxylation of oleuropein in ChCl:Citric acid (1 : 1) DES canprovide a ready-to-use “phenolic complex“ with oxygen scav-enging power similar to a mixture of phenols extracted from anEVOO that meets the requirements of EFSA health claim