Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are ‘‘green” solvents, applied in this study for the extraction of phenolic
compounds from virgin olive oil (VOO). Different combinations of DES consisting of choline chloride
(ChCl) in various mixing ratios with sugars, alcohols, organic acids, and urea, as well as a mixture of three
sugars were used. The yields of the DES extractions were compared with those from conventional 80%
(v/v) methanol/water. DES showed a good solubility of phenolic compounds with different polarities.
The two most abundant secoiridoid derivatives in olive oil, oleacein and oleocanthal, extracted with
ChCl/xylitol and ChCl/1,2-propanediol showed an increase of 20–33% and 67.9–68.3% with respect to con-
ventional extraction, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first time that phenolic compounds have
been extracted from VOO oil using DES. Our results suggest that DES offers an efficient, safe, sustainable,
and cost effective alternative to methanol for extraction of bioactive compounds from VOO.