The first objective was to develop an analytical method with a short analysis time using the minimum amount of organic solvents. A 3.5 mm i.d. column allowed a low flow-rate to be used (0.5 ml/min), and increasing column temperature to 40°C reduced run-time and back-pressure in the system. Under these conditions, oleuropein eluted at 5.2 (± 0.1) minutes with a total run time including column reequilibration of 13 minutes. The excitation and emission wavelengths were optimised for oleuropein at 281 and 316 nm, respectively, and it is worth noting that under these conditions, extremely strong responses are obtained for hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol which may also be determined at the ppb level by this method with elution times of 1.5 and 2.5 minutes, respectively.