Abstract:

The contents of 10 mineral elements in 21 different varieties of Chinese olive fruits growing in east Guangdong were measured by the method of microwave digestion followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The results showed the varieties of Chinese olive fruits tested in this study displayed basically identical rank order for 10 mineral elements by content, but there was a great difference in each of these mineral elements among these varieties of Chinese olive fruits. Besides environmental factors, the difference was also ascribed to genetic factors and element absorption. The content ranges of 10 mineral elements in these varieties of Chinese olive fruits were as follows: Ca 2040.20－4348.89 mg/kg, Mg 926.38－1175.12 mg/kg, Na 78.77－143.55 mg/kg, Fe 80.17－88.27 mg/kg, Mn 39.47－62.30 mg/kg, Zn 23.13－28.71 mg/kg, Cu 9.59－ 16.39 mg/kg, Cr 3.17－12.95 mg/kg, Co 2.30－4.04 mg/kg, and Ni 1.23－1.27 mg/kg. The excellent Chinese olive varieties were ‘Tulan’, ‘Qingpi’,‘Xiayuan’and‘Xiaodingxiang’, all of which were abundant in mineral elements.

Key words: Chinese olive, mineral element, quality comparison