Abstract
In this study, wild olive fruits were evaluated for the occurrence of phenolic antioxidant components and valuable nutrients which are distributed wildly in Soon valley of Pakistan. The shade-dried fruits of wild olive were extracted using different solvents to recover phenolic antioxidants. The highest concentration of extractable antioxidant components was recovered from tested fruits using aqueous ethanol compared to other solvents used. Crude concentrated extracts (CCEs) and phenolic rich fractions (PRFs) of tested fruits using hydroxyethanol were found to contain higher amount of total phenolic compounds and total flavonoid compounds along with superior biological attributes. According to ICP-OES analysis, potassium (17.96 g/kg) was the dominant macro element among other identified twenty-five minerals. The tested wild olive fruits juice was found to contain individual natural sugars including galactose (4.92 g/100 g dry weight), sucrose (2.75 g/100 g dry weight), glucose (0.73 g/100 g dry weight); and succinic acid (8.80 mg/100 g of dry matter) as major organic acid when analyzed on HPLC. Oleic acid (47.41 %) was the major monounsaturated fatty acid in the oil extracted from tested fruits. The concentration of phenolic antioxidants and biological activities vary significantly (p < 0.05) among extracting systems used. A strong correlation was also recorded among total phenolic (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and biological attributes of tested wild olive fruits. The results of this study explored wild olive fruits as a propitious source of natural phenolic components and valuable nutrients which reveal its potential use in the development of functional food and nutra-pharmaceuticals.