Phenolic Profiling of Olives and Olive Oil Process-Derived Matrices Using UPLC-DAD-ESI-QTOF-HRMS Analysis

All of the matrices entailed in olive oil processing were screened for the presence of known and new phenol constituents in a single study, combining an ultra high pressure liquid chromatography system with diode array and electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry (ESI-QTOF-HRMS) detection. Their trail was followed from the fruit (peel/pulp and stone) to the paste and final products, i.e. pomace, wastewater, and oil, providing important insight into the origin, disappearance, and evolution of each during the operational steps. Eighty different phenols, composed of fruit native representatives and their technologically formed and/or released derivatives, were detected in six olive matrices and fully characterized on the basis of HRMS and UV-vis spectroscopic data. In addition to phenols already known in olive matrices, four new molecular formulas were proposed and three new tentative identities assigned to newly discovered phenols, i.e., beta-methyl-OH-verbascoside, methoxynuzhenide, and methoxynuzhenide 11-methyl oleoside.