Author: Herr Dr. Amoneit
Last saved by: Saritas, Sevim
Company: Hewlett-Packard

Effect of Ripening Index and Cultivar on the Volatile and Phenolic Compounds of the Olive Fruit Pulp 
M. Aymen Bejaoui, Araceli Sánchez-Ortiz, Angélica Quintero, Antonio Jiménez and Gabriel Beltrán.
IFAPA Centro “Venta del Llano”. Junta de Andalucía. P.O. Box 50, 23620 Mengíbar, Jaén, Spain.

In virgin olive oil (VOO) the phenolic and volatile compounds are the principal responsible of its genuine flavor. Their presence in the VOO depends on the initial composition of olive fruit and the extraction process conditions. The main objective of this work was the characterization of the phenolic and volatile composition in olive fruit pulp from three of the most extended Spanish olive cultivar ‘Picual’, ‘Arbequina’ and ‘Hojiblanca’ during the fruit ripening process at three stage: early, medium and late ‘veraison’.
The volatile compounds identified were Hexanal, (E)-hex-3-enal, (Z)-hex-3-enal, (Z)-hex-2-enal, (E)-hex-2-enal, Hexan-1-ol, (E)-hex-3-enol, (Z)-hex-3-enol, (E)-hex-2-enol, Hexyl acetate, (E)-hex-2-enyl acetate and (Z)-hex-3-enyl acetate. For all the varieties studied there were no differences in the profile during fruit maturation. The major component found for ‘Arbequina’ and ‘Picual’ fruits was hexanal whereas for ‘Hojiblanca’ the main volatile was (Z)-hex-3-enal. In general, for most of the volatiles and for total volatile content an increase was observed along fruit ripening.
Regards to the phenolic fraction, Hydroxytyrosol, Tyrosol, Verbascoside, Oleuropein and Ligstroside were detected for the whole of samples analyzed, while Demethyloleuropein was only found for the ‘Arbequina’ variety. Oleuropein was the main phenolic compound detected, achieving higher concentrations for the earlier veraison stage in the ‘Arbequina’ and ‘Hojiblanca’ fruits, however for ‘Picual’ the Oleuropein content increase during ripening.