Effects of tree age on the chemical compositions and antioxidant activities of ‘Coratina’ and ‘Koroneiki’ olive oils from youth trees in China

Abstract

China is a new fast-developing olive oil producer country but with non-Mediterranean climate, resulting in the oils from China have been rarely studied. The scale of olive cultivation in China is growing at an amazing rate in recent years. 'Coratina' and 'Koroneiki' are the two major olive cultivated in China. Compared with environment condition, less concern was showed to the influences of olive tree age on the chemical composition of the oils. Thus, it is of great importance to investigate the characterizations of olive oils from trees at different ages to provided references for expanding the olive cultivation in China. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found in the concentrations of oleic acid, linoleic acid, γ-tocopherol, squalene and phenolic compounds between Coratina and Koroneiki oils from trees at different ages. All kinds of determined antioxidant capacities (DPPH, FRAP, ABTS and ORAC) of olive oils were significantly related with phenolic compounds and tocopherols. The results showed that both cultivar and tree age had influence on the chemical composition and antioxidant capacities of virgin olive oils.The influence of tree age was generally weaker than the cultivar, but tree age had greater effect on the structure of phenolic compounds than cultivar.