Lipidomic Profiling of the Olive (Olea europaea L.) Fruit towards Its Valorisation as a Functional Food: In-Depth Identification of Triacylglycerols and Polar Lipids in Portuguese Olives

Abstract

Olives (Olea europaea L.) are classic ingredients in the Mediterranean diet with well-known health benefits, but their lipid composition has not been fully addressed. In this work, we characterised triacylglycerol (TAG) and polar lipid profiles of the olive pulp while using a complementary methodological approach that was based on solid-phase extraction to recover the neutral lipid (NL) and the polar lipid-rich fractions. The TAG profile was analysed in the NL-fraction by C30 reversed-phase liquid chromatography (LC) and the polar lipid profile by normal-phase hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), with both being coupled to electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and ESI-MS/MS. This approach identified 71 TAG ions that were attributed to more than 350 molecular species, with fatty acyl chain lengths from C11:0 to C26:0, including different polyunsaturated acyl chains. The polar lipids included 107 molecular species that belonged to 11 lipid classes that comprised phospholipids, glyceroglycolipids, glycosphingolipids, and betaine lipids. In addition to polyunsaturated fatty acids, some of the phospholipids, glycolipids, and glycosphingolipids that were identified in the olive pulp have been described as biologically active molecules. Lipidomic phenotyping of the olive pulp has led to the discovery of compounds that will allow for a better assessment of its nutritional value and new applications of bioactive lipid components in this functional food.

Lipidomic profiling of the developing kernel clarifies the lipid metabolism of Paeonia ostii

“…Unusual odd FAs are known to be present in plants, bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts, algae, and protozoa 27 . Alves et al 28 also detected odd FAs, including 13:0, 15:0, 15:1, 17:0, 17:1, 19:0, and 21:0, on TAG and polar lipids of olive ( Olea europaea L.) by LC–MS/MS.…”

NMR-Based Metabolic Profiling of Edible Olives—Determination of Quality Parameters

“…Finally, a pseudo-spectrum indicative for Triacylglycerols ( TAGs ) was generated using the peak at 5.27 ppm as a driver. Mainly TAGs, but also diacylglycerols ( DAGs ) and free fatty acids ( FFAs ) are highly abundant in drupes [ 73 , 74 ]. As a result, the generated pseudo-spectrum was highly informative and free of any artefacts.…”

“…Indeed, most involve fresh olives [ 34 , 75 , 76 , 77 ], while there were others that used olives intended only for oil production [ 70 , 78 ]. To this date, the content of processed edible olives has been mainly investigated by HPLC-DAD [ 15 , 37 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ] and MS [ 32 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 78 ], with NMR coming in a resounding third place [ 60 ]. It is important to note that minor deviations compared with the literature were observed, in some cases, in chemical shifts due to pH or calibration mismatches.…”

Olive Pulp and Exogenous Enzymes Feed Supplementation Effect on the Carcass and Offal in Broilers: A Preliminary Study

“…Olive pulp (OP) is the remainder of olive cake (raw material resulting from olive oil extraction) after the cake is dried. It is also one of the most interesting by-products of olive tree farming, being a good source of several biologically active compounds with antioxidant, antifungal, and antibacterial properties [1][2][3][4][5] with a great nutraceutical potential [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The use of by-products from different vegetal origins to supplement feed is, on the other hand, attracting growing interest due to environmentally friendly use, efficacy, and sustainability, other than avoiding the necessity to dump potentially useful and valuable by-products of the agro food system [15,16].…”