Triterpenic acids in table olives

An experimental investigation was carried out for the first time on the triterpenicacids in tableolives. Maslinic acid was found in a higher concentration than oleanolic acid in the flesh of 17, unprocessed olive varieties, with the Picual and the Manzanilla varieties showing the highest and almost the lowest contents, respectively. The level of triterpenicacids in several types of commercial black and green olives ranged from 460 to 1470 mg/kg fruit, which represents a much higher value than reported for virgin olive oils. In fact, the NaOH treatment employed to debitter black and green olives reduced the concentrations of these substances in the flesh because of their solubilisation into alkaline solutions. Thus, natural black olives, which are not treated with NaOH, showed a higher concentration than 2000 mg/kg in the olive flesh. These results will contribute to the reevaluation of tableolives from a nutritional and functional point of view because of the promising bioactivity properties attributed to olivetriterpenicacids.This study was supported by a grant from the Spanish-Government and the European Union FEDER Funds (Projects AGL-2006-01552 and AGL-2007-63-647).Peer reviewe