Phytochemistry: ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil

Beauchamp GK, Keast RS, Morel D, Lin J, Pika J, Han Q, Lee CH, Smith AB, Breslin PA · Nature

The paper that started the topic, and it started from a sensation: the peppery sting fresh olive oil leaves in the throat is the same sting ibuprofen solutions produce. Oleocanthal turns out to inhibit the same cyclooxygenase enzymes in the prostaglandin pathway, with a potency and profile the authors call strikingly similar, despite no structural resemblance between the two molecules.

Population

Cyclooxygenase enzyme assays

Intervention

Oleocanthal, isolated from newly pressed extra-virgin olive oil

Comparator

Ibuprofen

Limitations

An enzyme assay in a one-page Nature brief communication. It establishes a shared pharmacology, not a dose anyone reaches by cooking, and no joint is involved anywhere in it.