Relationship Between Geographical Origin and Fatty Acid Composition of Turkish Virgin Olive Oils for Two Harvest Years

In this study, the fatty acid compositions of Turkish virgin olive oils produced in the Izmir province, an important olive production region of Turkey, were classified by chemometric methods: principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA). A total of 103 oil samples were examined over the course of two harvest years (2001-2002 and 2002-2003). The samples were divided into five groups according to olive growing zones: North (Ayvalik cultivar), East (Memeli, Memecik, Domat and Gemlik cultivars), South (Memecik cultivar), Izmir Penisula (Erkence cultivar) and Firms (poly-varietial oils or commercial blends). Consistent with discriminant analysis (DA), the predicted grouping in terms of the two harvest years were correctly separated as 84.6 and 85.9%, respectively. The highest levels of predicted grouping for the two harvest years were found in the North (Ayvalik cultivar) and Izmir peninsula (Erkence cultivar) groups (as 100%). In addition to oleic, linoleic, linolenic, margaric and margoleic acids, total trans isomers of linoleic, linolenic and palmitic/linoleic were determined to be the best descriptive components for the oil samples.