Abstract
Olea europaea germplasm is constituted by a huge number of cultivars, each one characterized by specific features. In this context, endemic cultivars evolved for a very long period in a precise local area, developing very specific traits. These characteristics include the production and accumulation of phytochemicals, many of which are also responsible for the nutraceutical value of the drupes and of the oils therefrom. With the aim of obtaining information on the phytochemical profile of drupes of autochthonous cultivars of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, a metabolomics-based study was carried out on 19 selected cultivars. Multivariate data analysis of 1H-NMR data and 2D NMR analyses allowed the rapid identification of metabolites that were qualitatively and/or quantitatively varying among the cultivars. This study allowed to identify the cultivars Racioppella, Guglia, Pizzulella, Oliva amara, and Racioppa as the richest in health-promoting phenolic compounds. Furthermore, it showed a significant variability among the different cultivars, suggesting the possibility of using metabolic fingerprinting approaches for cultivar differentiation, once that further studies aimed at assessing the influence of growing conditions and environmental factors on the chemical profiles of single cultivars are carried out.
Highlights
Olive (Olea europaea L.) belongs to the Oleaceae family and is a tree of significant biological, economic, and cultural importance
Its long record of cultivation led to the multiple phenotypic expressions, usually described as cultivars, each one characterized by specific morphometric and biological features [1]. It is becoming more and more evident that different cultivars are characterized by the production of different specialized metabolites [2,3,4], and since these compounds are responsible for many properties of olives and olive oil, it is crucial to study this aspect
The 19 olive cultivars collected in PNCVDA (Table 1)were analyzed in terms of the metabolite contents of the pulps of the drupes
Summary
Olive (Olea europaea L.) belongs to the Oleaceae family and is a tree of significant biological, economic, and cultural importance. The world olive germplasm is made up by more than 2600 cultivars, 600 of which are cultivated in Italy [5] This high variability is certainly due to the fact that olive is an allogamous species characterized by a high level of hetero-pollination. In particular, evolved for a very long period in a specific local area and developed adaptative traits that are well-integrated with the environmental, agronomic, cultural, and traditional landscape features of the site [6]. This huge number of cultivars is an enormous resource in terms of biodiversity, but on the other hand, their taxonomic classification in not a trivial issue. The classical method to distinguish between cultivars is based on morphological and bio-agronomic parameters
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