WAX ESTER COMPONENTS OF OLIVE FRUIT (OLEA -EUROPAEA L.)

The major objective of this study was to determine the chemical struct ure of long-chain aliphatic and triterpenic ester components extracted from the green olive Fruit (Olea europaea cv. Leccino). The classes o f esters composing the total ester fraction were: 1) esters of oleic, palmitic and stearic acids with short-chain saturated aliphatic alcoho ls (C-1-C-6); 2) esters of myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic and lino leic acids with long-chain saturated aliphatic alcohols (C-22-C-32); 3 ) benzyl alcohol esters with long-chain saturated Fatty acids C-24, C- 26 and C-28; 4) esters of palmitic and oleic acids with sterols. The a nalysis and the structure identification has been carried out by GC an d GC/MS and by comparing such data to those of standard synthetic comp ounds. Quantitative analyses of all the detected compounds has been re ported.