Effect of fruit stone removal on the production of virgin olive oil volatile compounds

To verify if the quantitative composition of volatiles arising from lipoxyg enase pathway was affected by the olive fruit stones, oils from whole olive s and from the pulp-only tissues, respectively, were submitted to gas chrom atographic determination of volatile compounds extracted by dynamic head-sp ace. Results showed different quantitative compositions for the two oil kin ds because of the greater accumulation of C-6 compounds from the lipoxygena se pathway in oils obtained from de-stoned olives, which is related to seri ous: cellular disruption observed in the crushed pulp tissues, C-5 compound s were affected by the stone removal from fruits. Furthermore, the enzymati c oxidation of linoleic acid was promoted in oils obtained after removing f ruit stones because of the more:significant increase of the concentrations of corresponding C-6 metabolites. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.