If you think that the only medicinal part of the olive plant is olive oil, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you learn about what is perhaps the most medicinal part of the plant – the olive leaves. 

Olive leaf extract has a range of purported benefits, the most popular of which is as a natural antimicrobial. Natural health practitioners routinely use olive leaf to ward off coughs and cold-like symptoms, yeast infections, athlete’s foot, and even ear infections. 

Less known, perhaps, is olive leaf’s ability to manage high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar (and possibly help block carbohydrate absorption in the diet). It has also been proven to have potent antioxidant qualities. 

Unfortunately, customers have made the mistake of purchasing a nutrient found in olive leaf called “oleuropein,” believing it is the only active compound in olive leaf extract. We think it’s wise to use a product that has some level of standardized oleuropein, along with whole olive leaf, because oleuropein by itself has failed to do the wide range of things whole olive leaf does. Olive leaf contains not only oleuropein, but also ligstroside, tyrosol, and various other phenolic compounds that work better together than in isolation. 

Olive leaf is safe enough to use every day at normal doses and is one of the few antimicrobial herbs that doesn’t seem to need an “on again/off again” rotation schedule. 

Whether it’s for seasonal conditions or chronic conditions, olive leaf should be in everyone’s medicine cabinet.