Research on monovariety olive oils - Note XVI - Characterization of the oil from cv. frantoio cultivated in two areas of the reggio calabria province (Italy)

In the framework of researches on the analytical characterization of Southern Italian olive fruit and olive oil production belonging to the Reggio Calabria province, the Authors report on evaluations of olives and oil obtained from the Frantoio cultivar belonging to two different production areas. Analytical investigations were carried out on olive production and oil extracted, following a protocol based on defined samplings performed through the whole olive fruit ripening cycle; factors as fruit ripening, along with olive carpologic and merceologic characteristics evaluation and oil yield quantification were taken into consideration. Pulp yield and pulp/seed ratio were also screened in order to evaluate a possible attitude of frantoio olive fruits for industrial table olive production. From such evaluations, it was confirmed the attitude of this cultivar for oil extraction. Among the chemical characteristics of the oil, the investigation was carried out on the biological stability of the oil, triglycerid and fatty acids composition, sterolic composition, triterpenic diols, tocopherols and total sterols content, aliphatic and terpenic alcohols and waxes, with interesting results for the quality characterization.