The Gemlik olive cultivar (which is grown for its fruit and oil, also known as the Trilya or Tirilye olive) is the major domestic cultivar of the Marmara region and originated in Bursa province on the Gulf of Gemlik. It has also been cultivated widely for over twenty years in other olive growing regions in Turkey and is the source of speculative claims by the domestic sector about the properties of its oil. In this study, VOO samples produced from Gemlik olive cultivar grown over two crop years in the two main locations (Salihli-Manisa n=10 and Gemlik -Bursa n=14) and reference samples from the Olive Research Institute-Borova/Izmir (n=2) were analysed using the common and approved capillary GC (Fatty Acid Composition-FA) and HPLC (Triacylglycerol Profile-TAG) methods. All data from both methods were classified with the most popular chemometrics methods (Principal Component Analysis, PCA and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, HCA). The results of the glyceridic data from the PCA indicated that the changes of cumulative percentage were the reason for variance levels (based on PC1 and PC2) in VOO samples of between 61.75 and 77.93% for all data over the two crop years. According to the PCA biplot analysis for the two crop years, some major-minor compounds and calculated parameters from FAs and TAGs data played an effective role in the geographical characterisation and classification of Gemlik VOO from two different locations, Manisa and Bursa. Consequently, the FA and TAG profiles could be promising in determining the correct geographical classification of monocultivar Gemlik VOOs.

This study is part of the Project No TAGEM/GY/00/14/041, supported by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MFAAH) of Turkey.The authors would like thank the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MFAAH) of Turkey (Project No TAGEM/GY/00/14/041) for its financial support. We are also grateful to Mr Metin Aydogdu (Agric. Eng. Department of Geographical Information Systems, MFAAH, Ankara) for the detailed map of the Aegean Region, Turkey.

Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MFAAH) of Turkey [TAGEM/GY/00/14/041]; Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MFAAH) of Turkey [TAGEM/GY/00/14/041]