The main objective of this work has been to study the technical feasibility of a combined water extraction / membrane process for the recovery of sugars and polyols (mainly mannitol, a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener in the food industry) present in olive leaves of the “Serrana de Espadán” variety supplied by Seicas-Mediles (Teresa, Castellón). The extraction of sugars and polyols from dried and ground olive leaves was carried out using Milli-Q water as solvent in a water bath at 50 ºC for 24 h, with a 1:20 (w/v) solid/solvent ratio. The obtained extract was concentrated by membrane treatments performed in a high pressure stirred cell, using several flat disc polymeric membranes with different molecular weight cut-offs to obtain a final retentate with most of the soluble carbohydrates, which were characterized and quantified by HPLC-RID.
