International Congress BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS - Gruppo di ...

23
CHARACTERIZATION OF ORGANIC VIRGIN OLIVE OILS FROM CORATINA CULTIVAR
E. Perri, N. Lombardo, I. Muzzalupo, E. Urso, M.
Pellegrino
Istituto Sperimentale per l’Olivicoltura
C.da Li Rocchi, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
eperri@libero.it
G. Sindona, C. Benincasa
Dipartimento di Chimica
Università della Calabria
I-87030 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy
119
C. Cavallo
Regione Puglia
I.P.A., Brindisi, Italy
Introduction
In spite of the growing interest in organically cultivated olive grove and organic olive oil in European and
international markets, there are very few reports on the qualitative, nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of
these products (Gutierrez et al., 1999; Perri et al., 1999; Perri et al., 2001; Perri et al., 2002). Recently, a
research project dealing with the “Characterisation of olive oils from the South of Italy obtained by organic
farming systems” has been co-funded by the EU and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture (B07 Project,
Multiregional Operational Programme, 2 Measure). The principal aim of this research project was to classify and
characterise the nutritional and organoleptic quality of organic olive oils and to compare the quality of organic
olive oil of important Italian cultivars from selected producing areas to conventional and/or integrated olive oils
from the same cultivars and areas. This paper presents some results of the second year of activity in Apulia of the
above research project.
Materials and methods
Plant material. In 2000, triplicate samples of organically and integrated cultivated olive drupes of Coratina cv
from two adjacent farms at Andria (Bari, Italy) were collected 10 days before the traditional start of harvest, in
the middle of the harvest period and 10 days after the end of harvest time. To compare organically produced
olive oils versus integrated olive oils the olives were handpicked from the same cultivars under comparable
pedo-climatic, harvesting and productive conditions and the analytical and sensory data compared on the basis of
the same stage of olive maturity monitored by Jaen index (Gutierrez et al., 1999).
Work-up of plant material. Olive drupes (10 Kg) were crushed with a hammer mill and the oil was extracted by
centrifugation after 20 minutes of malaxation at RT.
Analytical procedures. The measurements of free acidity, fatty acid methyl esters, peroxide index, specific
extinction coefficients K232 and K270, ∆k, and panel test have been determined according to the European Official
Methods of Analysis (EC Regulation N. 2568/91 July, 1991). Total phenols were determined by colorimetry
using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent using caffeic acid as external standard. Oleuropein (olp) was determined in
virgin olive oil extracts by tandem mass spectrometry with Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI-
MS/MS) under Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) condition (Perri et al., 1999b).
Results and discussion
The analytical data arising from the second year of sampling confirm the preliminary results published on the
first paper (Perri et al., 2002): i) olive oil from Coratina cv. is characterised by high level of total phenols and
high percentages of oleic acid in a wide range of stages of maturity of the drupes; ii) all the examined olive oil
samples were ascribable to the extra virgin olive oil grade on the basis of analytical data relating to free acidity,
peroxide number, specific extinction coefficients K232 and K270 , ∆k, fatty acid methyl esters, sterol and
organoleptic score (panel test); iii) ecologically grown olives can produce high-quality oil thanks to the low
Bactrocera oleae infestations; iv) as shown by the variance analysis (table 1), analytical and sensory data
relating to organic and integrated olive oils are very similar. In fact, the only statistical significant difference
observed between organic and integrated olive oils corresponding to the means of the sensory score of integrated
olive oil (table 1) may be considered negligible from the quality point of view.
Acknowledgements
The Italian Ministry of Agriculture and European Union (Multiregional Operational Programme, Measure 2, B07
Project) supported this research work. We thank Dr. Nino Paparella, Dr. Nicola Panaro (C.I.Bi., Bari) and Drs.
Edoardo and Giancarlo Ceci Ginistrelli for olive sampling, data collection on farming systems and olive grove
management. We thank also Prof. Angelo Putignano and Prof. Francesco Prudentino (I.T.A.S. of Ostuni-BR) for
olive oil extraction.
Literature cited
Gutierrez R. F., Arnaud T., Albi M., Influence of ecological cultivation on virgin olive oil quality, JAOCS, 1999,
76:617-621.
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