News & Articles - Olive Leaf Extract

The Truth about Olive Leaf Extract

"Calcium elenolate is not Olive Leaf Extract!"

Truly Olive Leaf Extract is one of the most amazing herbal extracts to come along in the 21st century, but what has come with it is a lot of confusion! Have you ever heard any of these statements or words?

We alone concentrate right-handed or dextrorotary calcium elenolate.
We invented the olive leaf extract.
We discovered the secret that The Upjohn Company missed.
You've got to have Oleuropein above 17% before it will work.
There's only one method to produce olive leaf extract that's truly therapeutic.
Ours is patented!
Elenolic acid or stereochemistry.

If you have been researching olive leaf extracts you have probably heard several of these statements and have become extremely confused, especially since there are 30+ companies offering, what they consider a good olive leaf extract. I can almost hear what you're saying, "What ever happened to, "It works, backed by proof?" The answer is, MARKETING!

Companies have to sell their products and if they can convince you that theirs is the best, better or the only one, hopefully, you'll buy it. But BEWARE, many things being said about olive leaf extract are not true!

It is time to end the confusion and reap the truth. We will back it up with proof so you will know where to go and will not be confused any longer. I am going to explain, in layman terms, some complicated things, but bear with me, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

After reviewing the list of constituents that come out of an olive leaf extract and not finding Calcium elenolate in it, I called Harold Renis, a virologist who used to work for The Upjohn Company. He wrote many of the articles that pertained to Calcium elenolate at the time of testing. He agreed that Calcium elenolate came from acid hydrolysis of elenolic acid. Where by they boiled elenolic acid with calcium carbonate to produce Calcium elenolate. This also concurs with the patent on Calcium elenolate filed in 1962 by Scientist, W.L.C. Veer.(t)

It finally made sense! It does not happen in the body. It was produced in a lab. So what is it that is working as an antiviral in olive leaf extract? To understand this we have to start with what is in a good olive leaf extract.

Olive leaf extract has 98 constituents that can be pulled out of raw leafs. (a) (m)
(See Exhibit: Handbook of Phytochemical constituents of GRAS herbs & other economic plants list By James A. Duke, Author in the back of this article.) As you look over these constituents the first thing you will notice is that there is no Calcium elenolate or Elenolic acid on the chart, but what you do find is Oleuropein.
Oleuropein has stereochemistry; in fact it has many stereo-centers making it diastereometric. That means it cannot be left or right handed. (f) And although Oleuropein is diastereomeric containing (+ & -) it is only (-) levorotatory in nature according to the Merck index on phytochemicals. (b)(c) Levorotatory means that the molecule, Oleuropein, rotates light to the left in a polarimeter. When Oleuropein is ingested it breaks down into other compounds, one of which is elenolic acid. Elenolic acid also has stereochemistry and is both (+) & (-) in nature. (Elenolic acid has been found to be highly virucidal in lab tests.) (d)(e)(g) Dr. Rebecca Braslau, Associate Professor of Chemistry at UCSC in California was contacted to verify the information stated above.
Two enzymes in your blood do the job of breaking down Oleuropein naturally. The enzymes, esterase & beta-glucosidase, automatically break down Oleuropein in the blood stream to predominately (+) dextrorotatory elenolic acid, no other process is needed. (h)(f)(d).

As mentioned before elenolic acid does have stereochemistry and the dextrorotatory molecule of elenolic acid does not blood serum protein bind, remaining virucidal. That is the secret of why it works. This means that olive leaf extract will work in your body according to the percentage of Oleuropein that is in it. The higher percentage the better.
Dextrorotatory elenolic acid does not blood serum protein bind. In the late 70's The Upjohn Company hydrolyzed (pulle d out) elenolic acid from Oleuropein with mineral acid. (I) After mineral acid hydrolysis only the (-) levorotatory form of elenolic acid was produced. Then they took one of its hydrolysates, a salt of elenolic acid and combined it with calcium carbonate to produce calcium elenolate, which was also only (-) levorotatory, and tested it in the test tube and in humans. It worked great in the test tube (in vitro), but blood serum protein bound in all the human studies (in vivo) rendering it ineffectual. The dextrorotatory molecule however was never used.

The difference-when Oleuropein is ingested it quickly converts to elenolic acid and produces predominately dextrorotatory elenolic acid. Bio-chemist W. L. C. Veer claimed that elenolic acid, in its dextrorotatory form, when ingested, produces a hypotensive effect in animal & human studies. W. V. Cruess discovered that esterase & beta-glucosidase enzymes were in the olive tree. It was further noted by Cruess that it is beta-glucosidase that hydrolyzes Oleuropein to the (+) dextrorotatory form of elenolic acid, which we now know, does not blood serum protein bind. William R. Fredrickson hypothesized that these same two enzymes would be present in your blood. W. R. Fredrickson also discovered that because of these two enzymes, Oleuropein would automatically change to predominately (+) dextrorotatory elenolic acid in the body.

After talking with Harold Renis, he informed me that they (The Upjohn Co.) believed that the left-handed molecule was the virucidal form, so they disregarded the right-handed form. (j) Further investigation and independent studies have proved that William R. Fredrickson was correct, right-handed molecules of elenolic acid do not blood serum protein bind. (e)(d)(k)(t)
Calcium elenolate is not in olive leaf extracts nor does it occur in your body. When researching olive leaf extract components, calcium elenolate is never shown as a component. (a) That is because calcium elenolate, being a hydrolysate (a salt) of elenolic acid, is a synthesized compound produced in the lab by mineral acid hydrolysis. You create calcium elenolate by boiling calcium carbonate with elenolic acid. (t) This cannot happen in your body. The Upjohn Company, known for producing synthetics, knew that elenolic acid by itself exists as an oil (natural form) and first needed to be converted to a crystalline salt (synthetic) form in order for it to be used in their testing. The molecule of calcium elenolate is only one ion different than that of the molecule of elenolic acid. It is interesting to note that when calcium elenolate is ingested it readily converts back to elenolic acid when mixed with stomach acids. In today's market calcium elenolate could be produced synthetically and then mixed with the natural extract, but that would be extremely expensive. (j)(l)(t) To date no scientific or medical literature exists to show that the body converts elenolic acid to calcium elenolate.
Calcium elenolate cannot be concentrated (+ or -) from an olive leaf extract. Since calcium elenolate does not appear in olive leaf extracts, (a) it is impossible to concentrate it. However there are some companies that would like you to believe they do. (n) Why? Again, Marketing! They've got to be different, right?
Oleuropein can be concentrated! Since it is Oleuropein in the olive leaf extract, not elenolic acid or calcium elenolate, Oleuropein is then what is concentrated from an extract. For every molecule of Oleuropein concentrated from olive leaf extract, when consumed, seven molecules of dextrorotatory elenolic acid & one molecule of levorotatory elenolic acid are produced. The more Oleuropein you concentrate the more elenolic acid you have. (e)(h)(p)
Who really discovered the solution to blood serum protein binding? One company claims that in 1995 they discovered the solution to the blood serum protein-binding problem that The Upjohn Company came up against in the 70's. (n) But the truth is that it was William Robert Fredrickson, a lay chemist, in 1989 that uncovered the mystery. (o) Fredrickson found that when Oleuropein entered the blood stream it was automatically changed predominately to dextrorotatory elenolic acid because of the two enzymes esterase & beta-glucosidase. William Fredrickson published his papers (which are in the Library of Congress) (h) to this effect. The vice president of the company, claiming to have solved the mystery, use to be William Fredrickson's partner in 1993 (NFN Company) before he was vice president of the current claiming company. (There is no wonder where he got the information on how to make a good olive leaf extract since William Fredrickson was the only chemist among them).
In 1995 there was only one company making an olive leaf extract. Therefore in 1995 there was only one extraction method. (s) It is true that all conventional methods of manufacture will produce an extract that is useless in the body. All conventional methods are too hot and would burn up Oleuropein. (n) Oleuropein is classified as an iridoid by nature and iridoids can be extremely heat sensitive and unstable. (r) It's now 2003 and there are other methods that are producing good olive leaf extracts.
Patents & patents pending. Currently there are at least 8 patents or patent pending either on a process, extract or attaching themselves to olive leaf extracts. We hold the U. S. Patent #6,117,844 for Method for Antiviral Therapy and William Fredrickson’s U.S. Patent # 6,455,580 just pass recently claiming the effective use of elenolic acid. It is concern that the one company claiming they alone discovered the mystery to the blood serum protein-binding problem, who has patent protection for their proprietary extraction process, also claimed in earlier literature that the process concentrated right-reflecting calcium elenolate. What's amazing about this statement is that the United States Patent #5,714,150 does not say that! It says, in its summary, "It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method for extracting Oleuropein in a form which retains medicinal activity in vivo. It is a further object of the invention to provide Oleuropein in a form which undergoes hydrolysis in vivo to produce elenolic acid which retains its antiviral activity, and which does not bind to proteins in the blood." (See anything about calcium elenolate there?) "Applicants believe the resultant Oleuropein contains a high proportion of R (right-handed) Oleuropein as compared with L (left-handed) Oleuropein."

It is now 2002 and they have since changed their story, claiming their process results in a concentration of right reflecting molecules of elenolic acid in the body. They also have changed the name of their extract. The fact is, their process is not unique and does not change the Oleuropein molecule, verified by biochemists. Most Olive Leaf Extracts will yield elenolic acid in the body concentrated proportionately to the percentage of Oleuropein they started with. Once again, the higher the percentage of Oleuropein you start with the higher the concentration of elenolic acid you end up with. (t)(u)(v)

There are those who might argue the point that concentrating Oleuropein diminishes all the other synergistic phytochemicals. That is a possibility if a manufacture selectively extracts Oleuropein using just a simple extraction method. However, there are several methods of extraction. Olive Leaf extract usually has many covering of alcohol and or water, which produce various amounts of phytochemicals each time it is covered depending on the solvent and temperature. Example: If a manufacture uses a non-selective extract method, with three or more coverings of alcohol, they will end up with a fairly predictable substance, but if the same extract was selective for just concentrating Oleuropein the end result would be very high in oleuropein, but very low in the other active phytochemicals. The same manufacture, if it were to use a non-selective extract method and after covering the extract three times, drain off the extract, continued to cover the balance and selectively pulled out additional Oleuropein and merge that with the first extract you end up with quite a different final product, higher in Oleuropein and a higher amount other the other active phytochemicals.

U. S. Patent #6,117,844, for Antiviral Therapy claims a method for treating warm-blooded vertebrates suffering from disease of viral origin and wherein the compound is Oleuropein to be orally administered to said vertebrate. A therapeutically effective amount of the antiviral composition is to comprise a compound selected from the group consisting of Oleuropein at a dose of 30mg to 500mg of Oleuropein.

The extract named “The Original Olive Leaf Extract” follows the manufacture and administration of U.S. Patent #6,117,844 Example 1-C, which produces a synergistic effect with the other natural flavonoid components of olive leaf, such as: the hydroxytyrosol group, oleoside group, cafferic acid, rutin, hesperidein and luteolin-7-glucoside.
Where is the original olive leaf extract? Since extracts have been made for hundreds of years, no one really knows! We do know however, that in 1811 Dr. Pallas used his own liquid extract to stop malaria fever out breaks on the island of Mytelene. France has also produced powdered olive leaf extracts for more than 50 years. The current company labeling their product "The Original Olive Leaf Extract" pertains to the brand name only and not that they invented olive leaf extract, Others, sadly, are claiming to be the original and they are not! (w)(x)
Currently there is no extract in the retail market today that contains higher than 25% Oleuropein (Updated 2-11-03) when tested by the Merck Index HPLC test procedure. Many companies claim very high percentages of Oleuropein however when tested by the Merck Index's HPLC test guidelines none have shown to be a little higher than 24%. (y)
A balanced (synergistic) extract of flavanoids & phytochemicals works much better than an extract with just high Oleuropein alone. (o)(q)
All extracts are not manufactured the same way! Not everyone is privy to formulas that work really well. Consider Coca cola. Do you think there is a company that has their formula? Of course not, even though many have tried, like Pepsi etc. The same is true with the olive leaf extract. The formulation of extracts and their process can produce quite different results. There are some olive leaf extracts on the market that work really well and others that do not. And unfortunately there are some that are worthless. (y)

Here are some other note worthy facts about Olive Leaf Extracts.

Oleuropein (pronounced O-lee-u-ro-peen), when extracted from olive leaves, along with the other phytochemicals (a), works as a very wide spectrum natural antibiotic, (o)(q) but it does not work on all things for all people. There are people that this wonderful extract will not work on. How can you tell you are one of those people? You can't! You simply have to try it.
As good as Olive Leaf Extracts are, they should not be taken along with Antibiotics derived from molds or fungus and certain Amino Acid isolates. Antibiotics if they are derived from mold or fungus, when confronted with Oleuropein, may inhibit them or kill them, wasting the effectiveness of both.
Amino Acids- one clinical study showed that when elenolic acid (produced from the conversion of Oleuropein) was introduced to equal amounts of either lysine, glycine, cysteine or histidine it canceled equal part out, wasting the efficacy of both. Either of these experiences could be frustrating so try and avoid taking them together if possible.
Those using blood thinners should take extra care and seek advise from their health care provider before using Olive Leaf Extract. Olive Leaf Extract has a relaxing effect on the coronary walls of veins and arteries, which makes them more pliable and easier to burse.
Those on blood pressure medications should also seek advice from their health care provider before using olive leaf extract due to olive leaf extracts (hypertensive) blood pressure lowering effect.
Each condition can vary in relation to your body weight & metabolism. Many times people believe it doesn't work for them simply because they are not taking enough of the extract or are using a weak brand and sometimes Olive Leaf Extract just will not work on a particular condition for a particular person and no one knows why, but antidotal evidence has shown that most people will receive benefit for most common conditions.
Die-off effect (Herxheimer reaction) to help avoid this effect drink plenty of water and if shortly after starting on olive leaf extract you experience cold or flu like symptoms decrease the amount you take by one capsule each time you take them until the symptoms go away. I would recommend not stopping it all together, as you will have to start your protocol all over. (k)
If you are concerned about the amount of Oleuropein your product has, call the company on the bottle and ask for a certificate of analysis of the batch number located on the container you've purchased.
You should also be able to ask for a copy of the method by which they determined their percentage. HPLC (high-pressure liquid chromatography) is the recommended test. They may not supply you with it, but at least you asked.

If you have any questions please contact us at info@ameriden.com.

This information is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. The Food & Drug Administration has not evaluated the statements within.