Oxidative stability of olive oil and its polyphenolic compounds after boiling vegetable process

The changes in the stability and phenolic content of an extra-virgin olive oil and an olive oil following boiling operation in the presence of vegetables have been studied. After the boiling process, none of the olive oil samples was oxidized, independently of the olive oil quality used. However, in contrast with tocopherols, all polyphenolic components decreased in concentration with the thermal treatment and this decrease was dramatic in the presence of vegetables, probably because of their high content in metals such as iron and copper. The addition of olive oil only 15 min before the end of the boiling process was shown to bring benefits in general for the content of both elenolic acid derivatives, 3,4-DHPEA-EA and 4-HPEA-EA, and hydroxytyrosol acetate in the processed oils. Moreover, less destruction of the vegetables polyphenols was also observed when processing olive oils only 15 min before the end of the boiling process. Interestingly, and besides the use of EVOO instead of OO did not bring benefits to the stability of samples or a higher polyphenolic content in the samples after processing, an higher radical scavenging capacity of phenolic extracts obtained from EVOO samples could be observed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.