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The chem­i­cal com­po­nents of the olive fruit have long been known to the sci­en­tific com­mu­nity as providers of an array of car­dio­vas­cu­lar ben­e­fits. Among oth­ers, the olive fruit is high in phe­no­lic com­pounds with antiox­i­dant properties. 

A recent Spanish study found one more pos­i­tive con­nec­tion between human health and the olive fruit.

This time, it was shown that the prop­er­ties of a stan­dard­ized olive fruit extract (S0FE), whose brand name is Proliva, might help improve the elas­tic­ity of the arter­ies, blood ves­sels that carry oxy­gen-rich blood from the heart to the tis­sues of the body. 

The stiff­en­ing of arter­ies might bring on myocar­dial infarc­tion and stroke, the two lead­ing causes of death in the devel­oped world. SOFE may work against these car­dio­vas­cu­lar events. 

SOFE con­tains hydrox­y­ty­rosol, a vir­gin olive fruit oil phe­no­lic phy­to­chem­i­cal with admirable health ben­e­fits, accord­ing to Guy Woodman, the gen­eral man­ager of EuroMed, which sup­plies Proliva. 

“Hydroxytyrosol is an anti-inflam­ma­tory which reduces pro-inflam­ma­tory sub­stances and increases the vas­cu­lar nitrous oxide level. Research has shown it inhibits platelet aggre­ga­tion stim­u­lated by col­la­gen and pro-inflam­ma­tory sub­stances,” Woodman told Olive Oil Times. 

“It is also a potent anti-oxi­dant that reduces LDL oxi­da­tion. Lastly, it reduces endothe­lial cell acti­va­tion by reduc­ing mono­cyte cell adhe­sion to endothe­lial cells in the vas­cu­lar lin­ing,” Woodman continued. 

Euromed’s research that was pub­lished in the jour­nal Drugs R&D tried to assess the impact of SOFE in sub­jects at risk for arte­r­ial stiff­ness. Researchers employed the so-called Cardio-Ankle Vascular Index (CAVI), an index which derives a stiff­ness para­me­ter by plot­ting the nat­ural log­a­rithm of sys­tolic-dias­tolic pres­sure ratio against the arte­r­ial wall exten­si­bil­ity. Then, they recruited 36 male and female sub­jects between 45 and 65 years for a dou­ble-blind, placebo-con­trolled study. Twelve out of the 36 sub­jects were assigned to each of the fol­low­ing groups: 

Group 1: 250 mg SOFE — 50 mg active ingre­di­ent, hydrox­y­ty­rosol (dosage achieved with two cap­sules per day)

Group 2: 500 mg SOFE — 100 mg active ingre­di­ent, hydrox­y­ty­rosol (dosage achieved with two cap­sules per day)

Group 3: Placebo

Next, all men and women were fol­lowed for 11 days. 

Scientists ini­tially saw a decrease in CAVI scores for all three groups. Yet, the high-dosage group — Group 2 — enjoyed the great­est improve­ment in CAVI. This group’s CAVI scores plum­meted from 11.02 to 8.91. Group 2 also exhib­ited an evi­dent improve­ment in their blood triglyc­eride lev­els. Mean triglyc­eride lev­els of the high-dosage group decreased by 21.64 per­cent, the most remark­able reduc­tion among all three groups. 

The study con­cluded that the stan­dard­ized olive fruit extract might help improve arte­r­ial elas­tic­ity, but agreed that a large-scale, longer-term study could bet­ter define the placebo effect. 

The researchers also included a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) ques­tion­naire as part of the study in order to exam­ine var­i­ous para­me­ters of energy, such as tired­ness, fatigue, and appetite, by which they were drawn to the fur­ther con­clu­sion that SOFE was well tolerated.

• Impact of a Proprietary Standardized Olive Fruit Extract (SOFE) on Cardio-Ankle Vascular Index, Visual Analog Scale and C‑Reactive Protein Assessments in Subjects with Arterial Stiffness Risk