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Effect of postharvest methyl jasmonate treatment on fatty acid composition and phenolic acid content in olive fruits during storage
Author(s) -
Flores Gema,
Blanch Gracia Patricia,
Castillo María Luisa Ruiz
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.8104
Subject(s) - chemistry , food science , caffeic acid , methyl jasmonate , ferulic acid , oleic acid , postharvest , linoleic acid , fatty acid , gallic acid , composition (language) , linolenic acid , antioxidant , botany , organic chemistry , biochemistry , biology , linguistics , philosophy , gene
BACKGROUND The nutritional effects of both table olives and olive oil are attributed not only to their fatty acids but also to antioxidant phenolics such as phenolic acids. Delays in oil processing usually result in undesirable oxidation and hydrolysis processes leading to formation of free fatty acids. These alterations create the need to process oil immediately after olive harvest. However, phenolic content decreases drastically during olive storage resulting in lower quality oil. In the present study we propose postharvest methyl jasmonate treatment as a mean to avoid changes in fatty acid composition and losses of phenolic acids during olive storage. RESULTS Contents of fatty acids and phenolic acids were estimated in methyl jasmonate treated olives throughout 30‐day storage, as compared with those of untreated olives. Significant decreases of saturated fatty acids were observed in treated samples whereas increases of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids were respectively measured (i.e. from 50.8% to 64.5%, from 7.2% to 9.1% and from 1.5% to 9.3%). Also, phenolic acid contents increased significantly in treated olives. Particularly, increases of gallic acid from 1.35 to 6.29 mg kg −1 , chlorogenic acid from 9.18 to 16.21 mg kg −1 , vanillic acid from 9.61 to 16.99 mg kg −1 , caffeic acid from 5.12 to 12.55 mg kg −1 , p ‐coumaric acid from 0.96 to 5.31 mg kg −1 and ferulic acid from 4.05 to 10.43 mg kg −1 were obtained. CONCLUSION Methyl jasmonate treatment is proposed as an alternative postharvest technique to traditional methods to guarantee olive oil quality when oil processing is delayed and olive fruits have to necessarily to be stored. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry