Development and evaluation of an HPLC-DAD method for the phenolic compounds from olive fruits

Abstract

A new HPLC=DAD methodology for separating nine phenolic compounds is described. This methodology is applied to the definition of qualitative and quantitative profiles of three Portuguese olive fruit cultivars (Cobranc¸osa, Madural and Verdeal). Two different extraction methods were needed for the complete definition of their profiles, one of them including a Sep-pack C18 cleaning step.The chromatographic separation was achieved using a Spherisorb ODS2 (25.060.46 cm; 5 mm, particle size) column.The solvent system used was a gradient of water-formic acid (19:1) and methanol, with a flow rate of 0.9 mL=min. The detection limit values for phenolic compounds were between 0.04 and 4.32 mg=mL and the method was precise. As ageneral rule, the recovery values were high. This technique can also be useful in the discrimination of Portuguese olive fruit cultivars.