Identification of the nutraceutical components of the Campania olive oil processing industry
The main objective of the project is to identify the health-promoting components (e.g. polyphenols) in products (such as leaves, drupes and oil) of the olive oil processing industry, relating them to the geo-location of each olive grove. The planned work packages include the mapping of selected olive groves in all 5 Campania provinces and the analysis of the nutraceutical components on leaves, drupes and oil. The obtained information including phenotypic, biochemical and genetic characteristics associated with the olive tree, will be analyzed and arranged in database useful to Campania olive oil producers.
The technical / scientific activities can be summarized in:
- Selection of no. 25 olive groves homogeneous by cultivar and representative of the 5 Campania provinces.
- For each selected grove, and for each year of the project, 2 periods (beginning of September and end of October / beginning of November) representative of the different olive ripening periods are identified.
- The sampling of leaves and drupes will be carried out. For drupes only, a color characterization and a 3D analysis will also be performed.
- Finally, immediately after milling, the obtained oil will be sampled for each of the 25 olive groves.
The olive growing in Campania represents one of the most important production chains not only for the number of workers employed but also for the size of the areas involved, for its relationships with the landscape and the defense of the soil and for the link between the history of the regional traditions and culture. The characteristics of Campanian olive growing are diversified in the regional context due to the presence of a wide variety of cultivars, the climatic variability, and the different agronomic techniques as well as different technological solutions adopted in the groves.
The olivehealth project allow the enhancement of the olive oil processing industry through the creation of a user-friendly database that collects all the information concerning the geographical location, the type of cultivar, farming and the nutraceutical content. This will lead to an improvement in the competitiveness of olive oil producers, through the recognition, even on the label, of the nutraceutical content. The Campania olive sector today produces olive oils classified according to the fatty acids content, without any classification of the nutraceutical molecules. In this context, the evaluation of the health-giving components in the oil will allow an indication of the quantity of bioactive molecules and therefore of the nutritional value to be added to the ordinary classification. Even in some cases, where the polyphenolic content was higher than 700 ppm, the olive oil could take on a health-giving function.
| Titolo/Descrizione | Url | Tipologia |
|---|---|---|
|
Sito web del progetto
|
Sito web
|