From the Archive: An Olive-Pomace Compound vs Cancer Cells (2008)

In 2008, Spanish researchers found that a compound from olive-skin pomace killed colon-cancer cells in the lab. It’s a fascinating result — and exactly the kind of finding that gets dangerously over-translated into a headline.

What was reported

Researchers at the universities of Granada and Barcelona showed that maslinic acid — a natural compound from the olive-skin pomace left over after pressing — inhibited the growth of, and triggered programmed death (apoptosis) in, human colon-cancer cells.

What I make of it now — carefully

Let me be very plain, because this is the kind of story that does harm when it’s mis-told: this was an experiment on cancer cells in a dish, not in people. “A compound from olives kills cancer cells in vitro” is a real and worthwhile line of research — but it is not “olives cure cancer,” and it never was. Plenty of substances kill cancer cells in a dish and do nothing useful (or worse) in a human body. Olive oil is a genuinely healthy food and part of a pattern linked to lower disease risk; it is not a cancer treatment, and anyone selling it as one is lying. The honest interest here is that the humble pomace — the waste of the mill — turns out to hold compounds worth studying. That’s enough; it doesn’t need a miracle headline.

Originally reported December 2008, on research from the University of Granada and the University of Barcelona. The original write-up is no longer online.