Total recovery of the waste of two-phase olive oil processing: isolation of added-value compounds

A process for the value addition of solid waste from two-phase olive oil extraction or "alperujo" that includes a hydrothermal treatment has been suggested. In this treatment an autohydrolysis process occurs and the solid olive byproduct is partially solubilized. From this water-soluble fraction can be obtained besides the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol several other compounds of high added value. In this paper three different samples of alperujo were characterized and subjected to a hydrothermal treatment with and without acid catalyst. The main soluble compounds after the hydrolysis were represented by monosaccharides xylose, arabinose, and glucose; oligosaccharides, mannitol and products of sugar destruction. Oligosaccharides were separated by size exclusion chromatography. It was possible to get highly purified mannitol by applying a simple purification method.