SIMPLE AND HYDROLYZABLE PHENOLIC-COMPOUNDS IN VIRGIN OLIVE OIL .1. THEIR EXTRACTION, SEPARATION, AND QUANTITATIVE AND SEMIQUANTITATIVE EVALUATION BY HPLC

Phenolic compounds have a fundamental importance in the nutritional and sensory characteristics of virgin olive oil. Problems regarding their qualitative and quantitative evaluation have not been completely solved; hence, in this paper the extractive and HPLC methods of analysis are examined and some modifications are presented. By means of these techniques, elenolic acid and four unknown compounds having phenolic behavior were separated from virgin olive oil. Four of them were correlated with total phenols evaluated by means of the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, and two of them were correlated with olive oil autoxidation stability.