Quality, composition, and antioxidant activity of virgin olive oil from introduced varieties at Liangshan

•Quality properties of four virgin olive oils from introduced varieties.•Composition of four virgin olive oils from introduced varieties.•Antioxidant activity of four virgin olive oils polyphenol extracts.•Comprehensive assessment on four virgin olive oils quality.

Virgin olive oil from introduced varieties has attracted a lot of attention because it can grow in environments different from where it originated. We used Acid-base titration, oxidation-reduction titration, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to evaluate the quality, composition, and antioxidant activities of four virgin olive oils from introduced varieties at Liangshan. The composition and quality index were comparable to an extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) reference, but the free fatty acid and peroxide values were lower than the EVOO reference. Palmitic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid were the major fatty acids that conformed to standards, while Koreniki exhibited a high percentage of oleic acid. We determined the contents of α-tocopherol, stigmasterol, and β-sitosterol and found that Koreniki had the highest α-tocopherol content, Barnea had the highest stigmasterol content, and Manzanlilla had the highest β-sitosterol content. The total polyphenol ranged from 55.41 to 180.21 mg/kg oil. The polyphenol extracts of oil had excellent anti-oxidation properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) also showed that Manzanilla had the highest score.