Abstract

The present work focused on the chemical composition of monovarietal virgin olive oil from the cultivar Chemlali cultivated in the South of Tunisia: sub-arid zone under three different irrigation regimes: stressed, moderate and well irrigation treatment with the restitution of 50, 75 and 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), respectively. Quality characteristics (acidity and peroxide value) and chemical data (antioxidant compound, fatty acids volatile compounds and oxidative stability) were studied in addition to the pomological characteristic of olive fruit. Results show that there were significant differences observed in oil composition according to the irrigation regime applied. Total phenols, bitterness intensity and LOX products content showed the highest values for low irrigation regime, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acid and oxidative susceptibility values had highest values for olive oil from well irrigated trees. Analytic characteristic of fruits showed the highest values of pulp/stone ratios from olive trees irrigated by the highest amount of water.

Key words: Virgin olive oil, phenols, volatile compounds, oxidative stability.