Phenolic and volatile compounds of Neb Jmel olive oil cultivar according to their geographical origin using chemometrics

This paper reports the quality indices, the volatile components, phenolic compounds and the oxidative stability of monovarietal Tunisian cultivar (cv. Neb Jmel) extra-virgin olive oils cultivated in eight regions. Headspace solid-phase microextraction and HPLC–DAD were applied to analyze and quantify the volatile and phenolic compounds of the obtained extra-virgin olive oils. Twenty compounds have been identified and quantified, revealing the complex profile of Neb Jmel EVOO, composed, in order of abundance, by secoiridoids, phenolic alcohols, lignans, flavonoids and phenolic acids. A total of 40 volatile compounds belonging mainly to esters, aldehydes, ketones, aliphatic alcohols and hydrocarbons were determined. Significant differences in the proportions of volatile and phenolic constituents of oils from different geographical origins were observed. The major volatile component was the C6 aldehyde (hexanal and (E)-2-hexenal) fraction, whose content was highly variable between the areas studied. The content of (E)-2-hexenal ranged from 50.9 % in the Melloulech EVOO to approximately 39.8 % for El-Ala EVOO.