Olive fruits contain an n-alkane series of saturated hydrocarbons mainly in the pulp. Lower amounts of a complex mixture of paraffins, unresolved by gas chromatography (UCM--unresolved complex mixture), have been found in cuticle, stone (woody shell and seed), olive leaves, and talc used as an aid to olive oil extraction. The amounts of both kinds of hydrocarbons are related to the olive cultivar and are transferred to oils in a proportion depending on the oil-obtaining process (centrifugation or solvent extraction). In olive oil obtained by centrifugation, only n-alkanes were detected. However, in olive oil extracted by second centrifugation, small amounts of UCM paraffins were detected together with the n-alkanes. Olive pomace oils showed a very variable content of both types of hydrocarbons according to the different obtaining process, such as double centrifugation, solvent extraction or centrifugation followed by solvent extraction. 'White mineral oil' used in oil extraction machinery is the source of the high concentrations of UCM paraffins found in some olive and olive pomace oils. In the case of second centrifugation olive oil, a maximum limit of 50 mg kg(-1) of UCM is suggested, whereas in the case of crude olive pomace oil, it amounts to 250 mg kg(-1) plus an additional minimum of 1.0 for the n-alkanes/UCM ratio.
Keywords: Alkanes; hydrocarbons; mineral oil; olive pomace oil; unresolved complex mixture (UCM).