Level of nutraceutical phytochemicals in destoned virgin olive oils produced in Italy (Apulia Region).

Apulia is the first Italian olive growing region producing over 30% of the Italian olive oil product. In the last few years, in Italy, much attention has been paid to olive oil from destoned olives. We have characterized destoned oils coming from all the Italian olive growing regions, within the special research projects “Valorolio” and “Riom” funded by Italian Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies. Many analytical data are thus available. In this research paper we report the analytical picture referring to oils from Provenzale cultivar. Destoned oils (PRDO) have been compared to the homologous stoned oils (PRSO). In addition, the analytical profile of blend destoned oil (BDO) has been compared to that of the corresponding organic destoned blend oil (BODO). Such a blend included six oil varieties: Cerasola 40%, Cellina di Nardò 12%, Ogliarola Salentina 12%, Ogliarola Barese 12%, Coratina 12% and Fasola 12%. To characterize the oils, HRGC, HPLC, HPSEC, GC-MS, and other analytical methods have been used. We observed that chlorophylls, major carotenoids and related CIE chromatic parameters (chroma and brightness) are not affected by the organic oil production model. On the contrary, the olive destoning technique meaningfully decreases the oil content of both green and yellow natural pigments. This is because mechanical crusher acts more efficaciously than destoner on the hypoderm tissue, where chloroplast colourings are essentially located. Both organic olive cultivation factor and olive destoning technique positively impact the oil green aromas. These two factors also significantly enhance the concentrations of other bioactive phytochemicals, such as α-tocopherol, secoiridoids, oleocanthal (a COX inhibitor) and other biophenol molecules. The organic destoned oil, also called biodestoned oil, appears to be a highly functional produce, which could actually successfully be used to prevent the metabolic syndrome and other current human disorders. This oil kind also shows high storability and a unique flavour/fragrance, and thus a marked nutritional value. By contrast, the above two factors do not impact the oil genuineness parameters. Multivariate statistical analyses (PCA, HCA, DA, SIMCA, KNN, CART) give plots in which the above technological treatments are clearly discriminated.