Effects of Ultrasound Technology on the Qualitative Properties of Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The development of innovative technologies in the mechanical extraction process of extra virgin olive oil can improve its quality standards through the modulation of physical, chemical and biochemical processes. Extra virgin olive oil quality and varietal differentiation are influenced by many factors, particularly the extraction. The use of ultrasound technology in the extraction process does not affect the quality, the composition, and the thermal properties of the oil, facilitating its separation from solids, and it allows the release of active compounds from the olive paste, with a positive influence on the phenolic content. In this study, the impact of ultrasound technologies was evaluated on merceological parameters, quality profile, and organoleptic features of extra virgin olive oils extracted from whole and destoned olives of the three main Italian cultivars (i.e., Peranzana, Canino, and Coratina). The parameters analyzed were influenced by both genotype and treatment, in particular, sonication did not lead to significant changes in the nutraceutical profile of the oils. The de-stoned olives were able to determine a great improvement of oil quality both for phenolic and volatile composition with a significant enhancement of health and sensory properties of the product.

Characterization of 'Olivastro di Bucchianico cv' extra virgin olive oils and its recognition by HS-GC-IMS.

BACKGROUND: Single cultivar 'Olivastro di Bucchianico' extra virgin olive oil is obtained from olives cultivated in a narrow area of the Abruzzo region, Italy. This cultivar is mostly present in the municipality of Bucchianico and in some neighbouring municipalities in the province of Chieti. There is very little research in the literature describing the morphological and chemical characteristics of this cultivar. RESULTS: A morphological characterization of the plant and the fruit was carried out. In addition, we characterized the chemical, physical-chemical and sensory properties of the extra virgin olive oil. The following analyses were conducted: free acidity, peroxide value, ultraviolet spectrophotometric indices, contents in fatty acid ethyl esters, waxes, tocopherols, fatty acids, triglycerides, sterols, alcohols, phenolic substances, volatile compounds and sensory profile. The analysis of the volatile compounds was performed using a headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) instrument connected to a nitrogen generator for carrier/drift gas production. CONCLUSION: The results of the chemical analyses showed good levels of nutraceutical components in the oils, which were found to be organoleptically well balanced with medium values of fruity, bitter and pungent. The HS-GC-IMS method based on the analysis of 15 volatile molecules might be a useful tool for a chemometric discrimination of the varietal origin for the oils under investigation. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Olive Pâté by Multi-Phase Decanter as Potential Source of Bioactive Compounds of Both Nutraceutical and Anticancer Effects.

In the oil sector, a novelty in the centrifugal extraction system is represented by the multi-phase decanters (DMF) that work without adding process water and with the advantage of recovering a dried pomace and a by-product, called "pâté", consisting of the pulp and its vegetation water, without traces of stone. The pâté has a high content of phenolic compounds, mainly represented by secoiridoids and verbascoside. The present work investigated the efficacy of two different ways of debittering (by sequential filtrations and spontaneous fermentation) of DMF pâté from three olive cultivars (Olea europaea L. "Leccino", "Carboncella" and "Tortiglione") to make the pâté edible, and, contemporary, investigated also the effect of its phenolic bioactive extracts on pathogenic bacteria and colon cancer cell model. Daily filtrations of pâté of the three cultivars have been shown to be more efficient in phenolic degradation. The activity of the indigenous microflora on the other hand takes a longer time to degrade the phenolic component and therefore to de-bitter it. None of pâté showed antibacterial activity. Colorimetric assay MTS for cell viability and metabolic activity tested on colon cancer cells CaCo2 and HCT116 suggest a potential beneficial effect of the dried extracts probably related to the modulation of gene expression under these treatments.

¹H NMR and Multivariate Analysis for Geographic Characterization of Commercial Extra Virgin Olive Oil: A Possible Correlation with Climate Data.

¹H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis has been applied in order to investigate metabolomic profiles of more than 200 extravirgin olive oils (EVOOs) collected in a period of over four years (2009-2012) from different geographic areas. In particular, commercially blended EVOO samples originating from different Italian regions (Tuscany, Sicily and Apulia), as well as European (Spain and Portugal) and non-European (Tunisia, Turkey, Chile and Australia) countries. Multivariate statistical analysis (Principal Component Analisys (PCA) and Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA)) applied on the NMR data revealed the existence of marked differences between Italian (in particular from Tuscany, Sicily and Apulia regions) and foreign (in particular Tunisian) EVOO samples. A possible correlation with available climate data has been also investigated. These results aim to develop a powerful NMR-based tool able to protect Italian olive oil productions.

13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the different components of epicuticular waxes of olive fruit (Olea europaea) Dritta cultivar.

(13)C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) was applied to determine the different components of apolar and polar fractions which were isolated by column chromatography from the crude chloroform-soluble waxes of olive fruits (Olea europaea) Dritta cultivar. (13)C NMR enabled the determination in the wax apolar fraction, of aliphatic aldehydes, and of benzyl, alkyl and glyceryl esters. In particular, the fatty acid composition of alkyl esters, comprising saturated and unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids, was determined. Acyl chain composition and the chain composition of 1,3- and 2-glycerol positions were also determined for triacylglycerols of olive fruit waxes. Oleanolic and maslinic acids were confirmed to be the major components of wax polar fraction. Complete assignments of (13)C NMR chemical shifts of oleanolic and maslinic acids as a mixture were achieved by using homonuclear correlation spectroscopy with gradient (g-COSY), attached proton test (APT), inverse-detected heteronuclear single-quantum coherence with gradient (g-HSQC), high-resolution heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy (HETCOR) for C-H directly attached pairs and C-H long-range-coupled experiments.

Determination of geographical origin of olive oils using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. I - Classification of olive oils of the Puglia region with denomination of protected origin.

13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to classify olive oils from the three production areas of the Puglia region labeled with the "denomination of protected origin" (DPO) Terra di Bari, Colline di Brindisi, and Dauno. High resolution (13)C spectra of 173 olive oil samples were measured, and the intensity data of triacylglycerol resonances were processed by using linear discriminant analysis, which was carried out stepwise for variable selection. The olive oil samples from the DPOs Colline di Brindisi and Terra di Bari were 90% correctly classified, whereas only 74% of "Dauno" DPO oils were classified in the true group. The performance of the discriminant model was verified by applying the cross-validation procedure based on the "leave one out" formalism. The discriminant model was evaluated against a blind test set of olive oils from the three DPO areas. All the oils used for the purpose were correctly assigned to their respective groups, with the exception of the Dauno oil samples based on the Coratina cv. They were misclassified as Terra di Bari oils because of a common monovarietal composition.