`Research Demonstrates Potential of Oleuropein in Bowel Disease Treatment - Olive Oil Times
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Research Demonstrates Potential of Oleuropein in Bowel Disease Treatment

By Simon Roots
Jun. 19, 2025 15:37 UTC
Summary Summary

Oleuropein, a phe­nol found in olive oil, has been found to effec­tively alle­vi­ate ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis by mod­u­lat­ing gut micro­biota and bile acid lev­els, pro­vid­ing a poten­tial alter­na­tive treat­ment for this chronic inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease. The com­pound not only relieves symp­toms but also addresses under­ly­ing path­o­genic processes, mak­ing it a promis­ing can­di­date for fur­ther research and poten­tial com­ple­men­tary treat­ments for var­i­ous dis­eases, includ­ing col­orec­tal can­cer.

The olive oil phe­nol oleu­ropein has been shown to be effec­tive at alle­vi­at­ing ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis, a chronic inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease with ris­ing global rates. 

A new study, pub­lished in a spe­cial issue of the jour­nal Foods, indi­cates that the mech­a­nisms by which it does so open up new avenues of treat­ment for this and other col­orec­tal dis­eases.

Ulcerative col­i­tis is a chronic inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease that affects the colon and rec­tum, lead­ing to per­sis­tent mucosal inflam­ma­tion and ulcer for­ma­tion. 

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Patients with ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis typ­i­cally expe­ri­ence symp­toms such as diar­rhea, abdom­i­nal pain, rec­tal bleed­ing and unin­tended weight loss. 

In addi­tion, there is a sig­nif­i­cantly higher risk of col­orec­tal can­cer asso­ci­ated with the dis­ease, esti­mated to be two per­cent after ten years, eight per­cent after 20 years and 18 per­cent after 30 years.

Current treat­ments, such as aminos­al­i­cy­lates, cor­ti­cos­teroids and immuno­sup­pres­sants, are of lim­ited value and often come with seri­ous side effects, includ­ing hyper­ten­sion, bone loss and organ tox­i­c­ity. 

Given this and the debil­i­tat­ing nature of the con­di­tion, there is wide­spread recog­ni­tion of the need for alter­na­tive treat­ment can­di­dates.

A phe­no­lic com­pound with nat­ural anti-inflam­ma­tory and antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties, oleu­ropein extracted from extra vir­gin olive oil, has pre­vi­ously been shown to be effec­tive at alle­vi­at­ing ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis. However, lit­tle of the lit­er­a­ture has focused on the exact mech­a­nisms by which it does so.

Previous stud­ies have sug­gested that oleu­ropein may alle­vi­ate symp­toms of ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis by reduc­ing oxida­tive stress and mod­u­lat­ing immune responses. 

The researchers focused on the inter­ac­tions between oleu­ropein and gut micro­biota, hypoth­e­siz­ing that it could pro­tect the colon by mod­u­lat­ing micro­bial pop­u­la­tions and their meta­bolic prod­ucts.

Using mouse mod­els, orally admin­is­tered oleu­ropein was shown to sig­nif­i­cantly improve clin­i­cal symp­toms, such as weight loss and colon short­en­ing, indi­cat­ing phys­i­cal tis­sue repair. 

At the cel­lu­lar and mol­e­c­u­lar lev­els, oxida­tive stress-related abnor­mal­i­ties, such as ele­vated myeloper­ox­i­dase activ­ity, were reversed, sug­gest­ing the mit­i­ga­tion of oxida­tive dam­age.

Meanwhile, pro-inflam­ma­tory cytokines were sup­pressed through the NF-κB sig­nal­ing path­way, and tight junc­tion pro­tein lev­els were increased.

See Also:Consuming Oleuropein May Mitigate the Effects of Aging on Muscular Atrophy

To con­firm the role of gut micro­biota, the micro­biota were trans­ferred from treated to untreated mice. Without any addi­tional inter­ven­tion, ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis sever­ity was reduced, indi­cat­ing that micro­bial changes induced by oleu­ropein play an impor­tant role in the compound’s ther­a­peu­tic effects. 

These find­ings were fur­ther enforced by 16S rRNA sequenc­ing, which revealed increased lev­els of Lactobacillus and decreased lev­els of Proteobacteria, a group strongly asso­ci­ated with inflam­ma­tory gut responses and numer­ous dis­eases.

In addi­tion to micro­bial com­po­si­tion, the researchers inves­ti­gated the impact of oleu­ropein on bile pro­duc­tion. 

Ulcerative col­i­tis patients exhibit ele­vated lev­els of pri­mary bile acids, pro­duced by the liver, and reduced lev­els of sec­ondary bile acids, which are cre­ated through bac­te­r­ial inter­ac­tion within the colon. 

Such imbal­ances inhibit the growth of ben­e­fi­cial bac­te­ria and pro­mote pathogen growth. Analysis showed that oleu­ropein treat­ment sig­nif­i­cantly restored lev­els of bile acid, includ­ing key sec­ondary bile acids such as hyo­deoxy­cholic acid.

Because the hyo­deoxy­cholic acid lev­els dif­fered sub­stan­tially between the treated and untreated groups, their inde­pen­dent effects were stud­ied. 

Hyodeoxycholic acid admin­is­tra­tion repro­duced many of the pro­tec­tive effects of oleu­ropein, includ­ing improved weight main­te­nance, reduced colon short­en­ing and reduced tis­sue inflam­ma­tion. Like oleu­ropein, hyo­deoxy­cholic acid also sup­pressed NF-κB sig­nal­ing and restored tight junc­tion pro­tein expres­sion.

These find­ings sug­gest that oleu­ropein also acts in part by boost­ing hyo­deoxy­cholic acid lev­els, which in turn acti­vate FXR, a recep­tor known to play a key reg­u­la­tory role in chronic intesti­nal inflam­ma­tion, and sup­press pro-inflam­ma­tory sig­nal­ing.

The researchers con­clude that oleu­ropein not only relieves symp­toms but also addresses under­ly­ing path­o­genic processes. These include inflam­ma­tion, oxida­tive stress, bar­rier dys­func­tion and micro­bial imbal­ance. 

Its appar­ent ther­a­peu­tic effects on a com­plex reg­u­la­tory net­work of mul­ti­ple path­ways asso­ci­ated with numer­ous dis­eases, includ­ing col­orec­tal can­cer, make it a strong can­di­date for new alter­na­tive or com­ple­men­tary treat­ments and fur­ther research.

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