Bioactive Secoiridoids in Italian Extra-Virgin Olive Oils: Impact of Olive Plant Cultivars, Cultivation Regions and Processing

Abstract

In the last two decades, phenolic compounds occurring in olive oils known as secoiridoids have attracted a great interest for their bioactivity. Four major olive oil secoiridoids, i.e., oleuropein and ligstroside aglycones, oleacin and oleocanthal, were previously characterized in our laboratory using reversed-phase liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization-Fourier transform-mass spectrometry (RPLC-ESI-FTMS). The same analytical approach, followed by multivariate statistical analysis (i.e., Principal Component Analysis), was applied here to a set of 60 Italian extra-virgin olive oils (EVOO). The aim was to assess the secoiridoid contents as a function of olive cultivars, place of cultivation (i.e., different Italian regions) and olive oil processing, in particular two- vs. three-phase horizontal centrifugation. As expected, higher secoiridoid contents were generally found in olive oils produced by two-phase horizontal centrifugation. Moreover, some region/cultivar-related trends were evidenced, as oleuropein and ligstroside aglycones prevailed in olive oils produced in Apulia (Southern Italy), whereas the contents of oleacin and oleocanthal were relatively higher in EVOO produced in Central Italy (Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria). A lower content of all the four secoiridoids was generally found in EVOO produced in Sicily (Southern Italy) due to the intrinsic low abundance of these bioactive compounds in cultivars typical of that region.

Bioactive Compounds in Waste By-Products from Olive Oil Production: Applications and Structural Characterization by Mass Spectrometry Techniques

“…As recently evidenced for olive oil secoiridoids, whose profile is affected by various parameters, including olive cultivar and geographical origin [156], ripening stage at the harvesting time, agronomic and technological practices [157,158], and whose integrity was influenced by storage conditions [158], the distribution and integrity of phenolic compounds contained in OP and OOMW is expected to be affected as well. These differences are manifest when a comparison in quantitative terms is attempted (see Table 3).…”

A Study on the Clustering of Extra Virgin Olive Oils Extracted from Cultivars Growing in Four Ionian Islands (Greece) by Multivariate Analysis of Their Phenolic Profile, Antioxidant Activity and Genetic Markers

“…The same analytical approach has been applied in Italian cultivars by Losito et al [ 44 ], where the authors performed PCA on the secoiridoid measurements in cultivars from different locations under the same extraction conditions to investigate the cultivar/location effect on phenolic compound variation. They also observed cultivar clustering driven by differences in the secoiridoid concentrations.…”

FTIR coupled with machine learning to unveil spectroscopic benchmarks in the Italian EVOO

“…The uniqueness of some EVOO products is related to their cultivar, environment and agronomical/cultural practices (Losito et al, 2021). EVOO has expensive cost of production due to the hard and timeconsuming tasks involved in the cultivation and harvesting of the olives.…”