Monitoring of mineral and polyphenol content in olive leaves under drought conditions: Application chemometric techniques

• Differences concerned with mineral accumulation among cultivars were revealed via chemometric techniques.
• Total phenolic content was positively correlated with contents of Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn and Mn.
• Total flavonoid content was negatively correlated with all elements measured.

Flavonoids and phenolic acids are of the most important bioactive compounds in plants owing to the physiological and ecological significance but the contents are dependent on a number of different factors, such as plant species, harvesting times, environmental conditions, soil and plant mineral content, extraction techniques, etc. Nutritional status of plants is of great importance for sustainable crop productivity and desired traits of plants. In this context, the present study was designed to investigate and correlate the plant nutritional status with total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid contents (TFC). Results showed that the responses of both cultivars were different with respect to the element accumulation concentration and accumulation times. cv. Gemlik was not affected by irrigation periods whereas cv. Kilis Yaglik was influenced but after irrigation periods the samples were allowed to be in the same group and did not differ for cv. Kilis Yaglik.