Physicochemical Analysis and Fatty Acid Composition of Oil Extracted from Olive Fruit

Abstract

Research work was carried out to investigate the physicochemical analysis of olive oil extracted from olives grown in Khyber pakhtunkhwa. The samples were studied for physicochemical characteristics (Specific gravity, refractive index, Acid value, Saponification value and Peroxide value). The free fatty acidity is thus a direct measure of the quality of the oil. Olive oils contain fatty acids commonly present in olive oils which were analysed which are Palmitic, Palmitoleic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic, Linolenic, Arachidic and Gadoleic which have specific carbon number and their values in percentage are C16:0 (15.4), C16:1(1.5), C18:0 (3.5), C18:1 (65.2), C18:2 (16.3), C18:3 (0.7), C20:0 (0.3) and C20:1(0.2) respectively. The major fatty acid found in kalamata variety of olive oil contain oleic acid. Oleic acid percentage is high in olive oil which contained considerable amount of 65.2 %. The oil was compared with two olive oil samples S₂ and S₃ collected from local market.

Keywords: Olive oil, Fatty acids, Sensory evaluation