Oleuropein: A Valuable Bio-Renewable Synthetic Building Block

The isolation and structural elucidation of key active compounds from natural sources have grown increasingly in importance, and oleuropein has come to be seen as a potentially valuable natural compound for employment as a starting material for the generation of new compounds with new therapeutic utility. This microreview focuses on the synthetic transformations of oleuropein, together with its structure elucidation and isolation, biosynthesis, biodegradation, and biological properties.