A new study published online on May 8, 2015 in the peer-reviewed journal Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology shows the effects of the active olive leaf compounds, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol, on functional perturbations and oxidative stress arising from co-exposure with bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) in rats’ mothers milk. Asma Mahmoudia and colleagues divided lactating rats into four groups: controls (A), treated with 250 mg/kg BPA (B), treated with 250 mg/kg BPA and 500 mg/kg oleuropein (C) and treated with 250 mg/kg BPA and 150 mg/kg hydroxytyrosol (D). The authors found that BPA exposure caused a significant decrease in the body weight and absolute organ weights in mothers and their pups; BPA also adversely affected their livers and kidneys. However, in groups C and D, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol confered a total body weight recovery to mothers treated with BPA. According to the authors, the wellbeing of young rats of groups C and D may be explained by the transfer of both phenolic compounds or/and their metabolites through breast milk. The co-treatments with BPA and oleuropein or with BPA and hydroxytyrosol also ameliorated all morphological, biochemical and histological parameters in livers and kidneys as compared to the BPA-only treated group. According to the authors, the results demonstrate the preventive effect of oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol against BPA-induced toxicity.
In extra virgin olive oil, the concentration of oleuropein has been reported to be 2.3–9.0 mg/l and 2.04 ± 0.78 mg/kg and for hydroxytyrosol 1.4–5.6 mg/l, 1.63 ± 0.25 mg/kg and 14.42 ± 3.01 mg/kg (Tuck and Hayball, 2002).
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Mahmoudi, A. et al. (2015). “Oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol protect from bisphenol A effects in livers and kidneys of lactating mother rats and their pups’.” Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology (published online May 8, 2015).
