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.