`Small Study Suggests Anti-Aging Potential of Polyphenols on Skin - Olive Oil Times
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Small Study Suggests Anti-Aging Potential of Polyphenols on Skin

By Paolo DeAndreis
Oct. 18, 2024 15:48 UTC

Recent research has con­firmed that the phe­nols found in extra vir­gin olive oil may have sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial in mit­i­gat­ing the effects of aging on the skin.

According to a paper pub­lished in the sci­en­tific jour­nal Medicina, two bioac­tive polyphe­nols, olea­cein and oleo­can­thal, have been shown to reduce some of the most vis­i­ble signs of aging in older adults.

While extra vir­gin olive oil con­tains dozens of phe­nols, the researchers focused on these two com­pounds due to their promis­ing effects on skin health, espe­cially in treat­ing non-melanoma skin can­cers and pro­mot­ing wound heal­ing.

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Additionally, these two phe­nols are rec­og­nized for their potent anti-inflam­ma­tory prop­er­ties, as sup­ported by a grow­ing num­ber of stud­ies.

The study applied both com­pounds in a skin­care solu­tion to 55 women and 15 men over one month. The par­tic­i­pants were divided into sub­groups based on age and skin mor­pho­types.

In ran­dom­ized, sin­gle-blind stud­ies, a com­mon clin­i­cal trial method, only the researchers know which treat­ment is given to the par­tic­i­pants.

At the begin­ning of the study, detailed data were col­lected on the par­tic­i­pants, includ­ing their age, weight, height, skin pho­to­type, med­ical his­tory, med­ica­tion use and smok­ing and alco­hol habits.

Participants were instructed to apply a one per­cent serum con­tain­ing oleo­can­thal and olea­cein twice daily for 30 days. Skin data were col­lected at the start of the study, after 15 days, and at the end of the month.

The researchers used the VISIA Skin Analysis System, a widely used plat­form for assess­ing skin treat­ments, to eval­u­ate the improve­ment in skin aging. This sys­tem cap­tures infor­ma­tion such as total wrin­kle area and wrin­kle inten­sity.

Deep and super­fi­cial wrin­kles were assessed at the study’s start, mid-point and con­clu­sion.

The results revealed an aver­age 23 per­cent reduc­tion in wrin­kle count across all par­tic­i­pants.

Both men and women showed cumu­la­tive effects from the serum, with researchers observ­ing that the treatment’s effi­cacy increased through­out the study.

According to the study authors, the effec­tive­ness of the two com­pounds ​“aligns with broader research on the skin health ben­e­fits of polyphe­nols, includ­ing their abil­ity to pen­e­trate epi­der­mal bar­ri­ers and inter­act with cel­lu­lar recep­tors.”

“Polyphenols have been observed to improve the struc­tural orga­ni­za­tion of the der­mis, which is cru­cial for its bar­rier func­tion, and to increase der­mal thick­ness and hydra­tion lev­els, which are essen­tial for main­tain­ing healthy, well-func­tion­ing skin,” the researchers added.

However, men and women expe­ri­enced dif­fer­ent out­comes.

Specifically, younger men aged 20 to 44 saw a 52 per­cent reduc­tion in wrin­kles, while older men had a 47 per­cent reduc­tion.

For women aged 45 to 79, wrin­kle count decreased by 34 per­cent, while younger women expe­ri­enced a 26 per­cent reduc­tion.

“Our study demon­strates that oleo­can­thal and olea­cein sig­nif­i­cantly reduce wrin­kle count in both men and women, espe­cially in those aged 45 through 79,” the authors wrote.

They fur­ther noted some lim­i­ta­tions, includ­ing the short dura­tion of the trial, the lack of long-term fol­low-up and the absence of a placebo con­trol group.

“The data col­lected at three dis­tinct time inter­vals show a con­sis­tent trend of wrin­kle reduc­tion. However, the over­all find­ings sup­port the use of extra vir­gin olive oil-derived polyphe­nols in anti-aging skin­care for­mu­la­tions,” they wrote, sug­gest­ing the need for more exten­sive and detailed stud­ies.

Olive oil has been used for skin­care for thou­sands of years. Today, a grow­ing body of sci­en­tific research sup­ports the impor­tance of using high-qual­ity olive oil in skin­care.

This research explores the use of extra vir­gin olive oil in ded­i­cated skin­care prod­ucts and the long-term anti-aging effects of a diet rich in extra vir­gin olive oil, such as the Mediterranean diet.

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