Time Course of Pentacyclic Triterpenoids from Fruits and Leaves of Olive Tree (Olea europaea L.) cv. Picual and cv. Cornezuelo during Ripening

Pentacyclic triterpenoids are plant secondary metabolites of great interest for health and disease prevention. HPLC-UV/vis was used to determine the concentration of the pentacyclic triterpenoids present in fruits and leaves of Picual and Cornezuelo olive tree cultivars. Maslinic acid (MA) and oleanolic acid (OA) are the only two compounds present in fruits, MA being the more abundant. In leaves, in addition to MA and OA, uvaol (UO), and erythrodiol (EO) are found, with OA being the most abundant. In this work, the changes in the concentrations of these compounds during ripening as well as the effect of Jaen-style table olive processing are reported. The amount of MA and OA found in Picual and Cornezuelo olives after processing was 1.26 +/- 0.06, 1.30 +/- 0.06, 0.31 +/- 0.02, and 0.23 +/- 0.01 mg per fruit, respectively. These results enable us to calculate the average intake of pentacyclic triterpenoids and reinforce the importance of table olives as a source of healthy compounds.