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The behaviour of three European olive varieties, Ascolana Tenera, Koroneiki and Picholine, cultivated in the north of Tunisia, was compared to an autochthonous variety, Chétoui. Most of the quality indices and the fatty acid composition showed significant variations between the olive oils. Among the introduced varieties, the Picholine cultivar had the highest value of oleic acid (61%) whereas the Ascolana Tenera cultivar was noteworthy for its lowest content of phenolic compounds (175 mg/kg) and presented the highest level of palmitic acid. The Chétoui variety presented a high content of oleic and linoleic acids. But all samples, both the autochthonous Chétoui and the introduced cultivars, have similar levels of antioxidant compounds, with the exception of phenols. The aroma composition showed significant differences between the oils from the foreign cultivars. The major volatile component was the C-6 aldehyde fraction whose content varied greatly between the different varieties studied: The E-2-hexenal content ranged from 1.6 mg/kg of oil in the Ascolana Tenera variety to .5 mg/kg for the Picholine and Koroneiki cultivars, whereas the Chétoui variety had the lowest levels of volatile compounds, with the exception of the hexanal level which was tenfold higher than in the foreign cultivars. Therefore, our results showed that two of the introduced varieties, Koroneiki and Picholine, showed good adaptation to the Tunisian cultivation conditions. So far, we claim the possibility to develop the successful cultivation of these latter imported varieties in the country.

The effects of the contents of lipids, pigments, a-tocopherol and phenols were studied in relation to the antioxidant capacity of five virgin olive oils obtained from five olive cultivars planted in Tunisia (Arbequina, Koroneiki, Leccino, Oueslati and Chemchali). The antioxidant capacities were evaluated by two different radical scavenging activities: radical scavenging activity by the DPPH assay (RSA-DPPH) and total antioxidant status by the ABTS test (TAA-ABTS). The highest contents of antioxidant compounds (75.96, 10.34, 6.32, 15.39 and 241.52 mg kg -1 for oleic acid, O/L ratio, carotenes, chlorophylls and total phenols, respectively) were found for the Koroneiki cultivar except for a-tocopherol and o-diphenols, which had the highest contents (369 and 160.7 mg kg -1 , respectively) in the Leccino and Chemchali cultivars (cvs). Furthermore, the highest antioxidant capacity in virgin olive oil was observed in the Koroneiki cultivar (0.24 mmol TE kg -1 ) followed by the Chemchali and Leccino cvs (0.22 and 0.13 mmol TE kg -1 ) for the TAA-ABTS test. However, the RSA-DPPH activity was higher for the Chemchali cultivar (19.9%) than for the Koroneiki and Leccino cvs (18.4 and 13.5%, respectively). Correlation between these capacities and the oil composition revealed that they were mainly influenced by the carotene content, followed by chlorophyll and phenolic contents where the ABTS test was more pronounced. Then, the antioxidant capacity of the virgin olive oils was correlated with polar components and the lipid profile which are important for its shelf life.

BACKGROUND: Antioxidant profile and volatile compounds were characterized in three virgin olive oils from European countries introduced and cultivated under the same orchard conditions in comparison to some autochthonous cultivars planted in different areas of Tunisia.