Total Phenolic Compounds and Tocopherols Profiles of Seven Olive Oil Varieties Grown in the South-West of Spain

This article reports about the presence of some of the components of minor fraction of virgin olive oils, polyphenols and tocopherols, in several of the VOO varieties from Extremadura. The relationship between both classes of compounds and the oxidative stability of the oils is also examined. The levels of total phenols, alpha, beta, and gamma tocopherols showed significant differences (p<0.05) among the different varieties. The concentration of total phenolic compounds varied from 130 to 1203 mg/kg. The alpha-tocopherol was the most representative in the seven varieties (95.97 %) and ranged from (288 - 170) to (485 - 244) mg/kg in the Morisca and Carrasquena varieties respectively. On the other hand, a positive high lineal correlation was observed between oxidative stability and studied along the maturity of the fruit and the total phenolic compounds (natural antioxidants) (r(2)>0.90; p<0.05), a-tocopherol (r(2)>0.85; p<0.05), beta-tocopherol (r(2)>0.70; p<0.05) and total-tocopherols (r(2)>0.87; p<0.05), in all the olive oils obtained from the seven varieties of olive from Extremadura. It is noticeable that a-tocopherol fraction contributed equally to the oxidative stability of all the VOO whereas the largest contribution was provided by the oil phenolic fraction, as it was the case of the Carrasquena variety.