The Effects of Geographic Region, Cultivar and Harvest Year on Fatty Acid Composition of Olive Oil

the olive cultivar grows 6,7) .The fatty acid composition of olive oil has a key role in olive characterizations.The dominant fatty acid is oleic acid which ranges from 55％ to 83％ 8) .Furthermore, the olive oil contains some saturated fatty acids such as palmitic acid which range 7.5℃ -20％, the myristic acid which range 0.05％ or less in olive oil 9,10) .Olive is grown in a large geographic area in Turkey, which is a significant olive producer, and olive oil is eventually produced.However, studies on the characterization of olive oil have only concentrated on specific regions and varieties [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Terefore, this study included exemplification that considers 5 different regions (Mediterranean, Aegean, Southeastern Anatolia, Marmara and Black Sea) , extensively produced cultivars per region and two harvest years, and the olive cultivars were analyzed in terms of fatty acid composition after being processed to the olive oil in agricultural facilities. EXPERIMENTALIn this study, the fruits of five olive cultivars were harvested from five different geographic regions (Black Sea, Southeastern Anatolia, Mediterranean, Aegean and Abstract: In this study, the effect of cultivar, harvest year (2010 and 2011) and the geographic regions (Mediterranean, Aegean, Southeastern Anatolia, Marmara and Black Sea) on fatty acid compositions of olive oil was investigated.The proportions of palmitic acid and linoleic acid, which comprised most of the amount of fatty acids after oleic acid, showed variations according to the region and cultivar.The amount of linoleic acid was found higher in some cultivars than that of palmitic acid.In the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean Regions, no significant difference was observed between olive cultivars for oleic and linoleic acids.The highest linoleic and lowest oleic acid content were determined in the Black Sea Region.One cultivar (Butko) showed an oleic acid proportion below 55% in this region.The effect of the harvest year on the fatty acid composition of the samples was also found significant.In oils harvested in the second year, a decrease in the amount of linoleic acid was observed, while the amount of oleic acid increased.The highest oleic acid proportion was found in olive oils produced from harvests in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions.