Avocado compounds, health effects and green extraction methods
What it found
Avocado is rich in monounsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins, phenolics and phytosterols, and studies in people link regular intake to better cholesterol, blood vessel function and gut bacteria.
The authors also describe greener ways to extract these compounds from avocado peel and seed.
What they found
Studies in people
Cholesterol in people
A review of 45 clinical and observational studies found avocado intake lowered LDL cholesterol, especially small dense and oxidized LDL particles, and triglycerides, while raising HDL. A separate analysis of ten randomized trials found total cholesterol fell by about 18.8 mg/dL and LDL by about 16.5 mg/dL.
Heart and blood vessels
In a 26-week trial in adults with abdominal obesity, eating one avocado a day improved blood vessel dilation and reduced vascular stiffness. A study of over 110,000 people found that eating at least half an avocado a day was linked to a 16% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 21% lower risk of coronary heart disease.
Gut bacteria
In a 12-week study, adults eating 140 to 175 g of avocado daily had a 65% increase in gut microbial diversity and higher levels of short-chain fatty acids. A 26-week trial also found more Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, a beneficial gut bacterium.
Studies in people and animals
Skin and wound healing
In mice, a cream with 15% avocado oil sped up wound healing, reduced inflammatory cells and increased collagen. In women, eating one avocado daily for eight weeks improved skin firmness and elasticity.
Other findings
Fatty acid makeup
Avocado pulp is high in monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid, which makes up about 60% to 71% of its total fatty acids. Lipids can be roughly 15% to 30% of the fresh pulp.
Green extraction
Ultrasound and microwave methods, sometimes with natural deep eutectic solvents, recovered more phenolic compounds from avocado peel and seed than conventional methods. One study found a 54% increase in flavan-3-ols and 62% to 76% better antioxidant activity.
What the authors conclude
“Future research should advance the bioprospecting of native and underutilized cultivars with enhanced resilience and nutritional quality, integrate multi-omics approaches for mechanistic insight, and conduct robust clinical trials to establish safety, bioavailability, and efficacy.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that avocado is a strategic source of bioactive compounds for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical uses.
- They advise that future research should focus on bioprospecting native cultivars, using multi-omics approaches, and running robust clinical trials to establish safety, bioavailability and efficacy.
- They also say that addressing regulatory challenges, especially substantiating health claims, will be essential for consumer confidence and market integration.
How it was done
The authors wanted to pull together current knowledge on avocado's nutritional and bioactive makeup, its health effects, and new sustainable ways to use the whole fruit, including peel and seed that are usually thrown away.
They reviewed studies published mainly between 2020 and 2025 from major scientific databases, covering avocado composition, clinical trials in people, lab and animal studies, and green extraction technologies. They also looked at how avocado and its by-products are being used in foods, cosmetics and supplements.
What it can’t tell you
- Many of the studies in this review were done in lab dishes or animals, so their results may not apply to people.
- Some findings come from studies that followed people over time, which can show a link but cannot prove that avocado caused the effect.
- The review notes that clinical trials on lesser-known avocado cultivars are lacking, so their effects in humans are not known.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
- Authors work at
- Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil; University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal
The paper
- Title
- Bioactive Compounds, Technological Advances, and Sustainable Applications of Avocado ( Persea americana Mill.): A Critical Review
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Nascimento APS, Duarte MEM, Rocha APT, Barros AN (2025). Bioactive Compounds, Technological Advances, and Sustainable Applications of Avocado ( Persea americana Mill.): A Critical Review. Foods (Basel, Switzerland). doi:10.3390/foods14152746Free full textPubMed 40807683DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error