Characterization of commercial Tunisian monovarietal olive oils produced from autochthonous olive cultivars

Abstract

Tunisian commercial monovarietal olive oils, produced from two predominant autochthonous olive cultivars (cvs Chétoui and Oueslati) and another less investigated olive cultivar (cv Sahli) were studied. Chemical and sensory data have shown that most olive oils should be classified as lampante olive oil, pointing out the need of improving producing and/or storage conditions. Sahli olive oils showed the lowest total phenols content (157±48 mg/kg), oxidative stability (6.5±2.1 h), DPPH scavenging activity (68%±14) and monounsaturated fatty acids content (63.1%±3.1). These olive oils had the highest saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids contents (19.9%±2.4 and 16.9%±1.4) as well as total tocopherols levels (222±49 mg/kg). Finally, the information of 12 selected parameters (total phenols, oxidative stability, nine fatty acids and γ-tocopherol), allowed establishing a linear discriminant model that correctly classified olive oils according to the olive cultivar with predictive rates of 90%±8. Heptadecenoic, behenic and eicosenoic acids were the three fatty acids identified as the most relevant chemical markers of Sahli olive oils.