摘要：Foods in the Mediterranean diet have been investigated recently especially for their role in human nutrition and their strong physiological effects on human health. Olive and virgin olive oil are main components of the Mediterranean diet and they contain many useful compounds for human health. Most important of these compounds, which can also be called as bioactive compounds, are polyphenols , tocopherols , phospholipids, carotenoids , chlorophylls, sterols and squalen . A significant proportion of these compounds, which naturally exist in olive, can be found in olive oil extracted by psychical means. It has been stated in some studies that there is a lower incidence rate of coronary heart disease and some types of cancer among people in Mediterranean Countries where olive and olive oil consumption is high. B ioactive compounds which have antioxidant characteristic are put forward as main reasons for this lower incidence rate. In this study, antioxidant bioactive compounds which naturally exist in olive and olive oil and their effects on human are investigated.
