Analytical Evaluation of Six Monovarietal Virgin Olive Oils from Kruja Region in Albania

INTRODUCTION The Kruja region is one of six regions that own olive varieties with very distinctive genomic features. It represents six different native olive varieties Krypsi, Frengu, Ulli-Bardhe-Kruja (UBK), Managjel, Ulli deti and Peperr. The area of olive groves in Albania covers 41000 ha, corresponding to 6.3% of the total arable land, and its annual producing capacity is 50 000 tons of olive fruits and 6000 tons of olive oil. Recent genetic studies concluded that Albania owns 22 native olive cultivars. OBJECTIVES This pioneer study records the fatty acid profiles and the total polyphenols content of 6 olive varieties from the Kruja region, in Albania. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results showed that, except for the Krypsi variety (66.3%), the olive varieties under study did not exhibit a great variation in oleic acid: from 72.5% in UBK until 76.56% in Frengu. The content of Linoleic acidvaries from 5.73% in Frengu till 15.2% in Krypsi , whereas the content of Linoleic acidvaries from 0.430% in UBK till 0.540% in Frengu. All six olive varieties revealed to have moderate levels of Palmitic acid, which varied between 9.62% and 12.1%. An important nutritional property to highlight is that the Frengu variety has an n-6/n-3 ratio of 11.1, while the Managjel, Ulli deti and Peperr varieties presented values between 16.5 and 29.64. Results on polyphenol content give indication that Managjel and Ulli deti varieties demonstrates highest values, 234.5 and 324.87 mgGA/l Olive oil, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Analysis of virgin olive oil from native cultivars of Albania is scientifically important, not only from the nutritional characterization perspective, but also to identify markers correlated with the origin of the olive oils existent in the market.