Preliminary Evaluation of the Nutraceutical Properties in Monovarietal Extra-Virgin Olive Oils and Monitoring Their Stability During Storage

In this paper, an in-depth characterization of the composition of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) from different cultivars was performed, with the aim of obtaining the fingerprint profile of bioactive constituents and studying the oxidative stability of the samples, both by an accelerated stability test and after four months of storage at room temperature. Among the investigated cultivars, some were typical of Umbria (Central Italy), namely Moraiolo, Frantoio, and Dolce Agogia, others of Apulia (Southern Italy), Coratina, Peranzana, and Bella di Cerignola, and others were typical Spanish cultivars cultivated in Umbria (Arbequina and Arbosana). The comparison of the chemical parameters among oils from the different cultivars allowed for their discrimination by multivariate statistical analysis. Some phenolic compounds were mainly responsible for the sample group’s differentiation, with the oils from the Spanish cultivars clearly distinguished from the Umbrian and Apulian sample groups. The processing of the results by chemometric analysis during oil storage and stability tests again allowed the discrimination of the samples analyzed at different storage times. This study contributes to increasing knowledge on olive oils— chemical and nutraceutical properties from specific cultivars, particularly some less studied so far, such as the Bella di Cerignola cultivar, and their changes in their nutraceutical properties during storage.