Amaral Joana S, Raja Fatima Z, Costa Joana, Grazina Liliana, Villa Caterina, Charrouf Zoubida, Mafra Isabel
REQUIMTE-LAQV, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.
Foods. 2022 Aug 18;11(16):2498. doi: 10.3390/foods11162498.
Argan oil is a traditional product obtained from the fruits of the argan tree ( L.), which is endemic only to Morocco. It is commercialized worldwide as cosmetic and food-grade argan oil, attaining very high prices in the international market. Therefore, argan oil is very prone to adulteration with cheaper vegetable oils. The present work aims at developing novel real-time PCR approaches to detect olive and soybean oils as potential adulterants, as well as ascertain the presence of argan oil. The ITS region, and genes were the targeted markers, allowing to detect argan, olive and soybean DNA down to 0.01 pg, 0.1 pg and 3.2 pg, respectively, with real-time PCR. Moreover, to propose practical quantitative methods, two calibrant models were developed using the normalized ΔCq method to estimate potential adulterations of argan oil with olive or soybean oils. The results allowed for the detection and quantification of olive and soybean oils within 50-1% and 25-1%, respectively, both in argan oil. Both approaches provided acceptable performance parameters and accurate determinations, as proven by their applicability to blind mixtures. Herein, new qualitative and quantitative PCR assays are proposed for the first time as reliable and high-throughput tools to authenticate and valorize argan oil.
阿甘油是一种从摩洛哥特有的阿甘树（Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels）果实中提取的传统产品。它作为化妆品级和食品级阿甘油在全球范围内商业化销售，在国际市场上价格很高。因此，阿甘油极易被较便宜的植物油掺假。本研究旨在开发新的实时PCR方法，以检测作为潜在掺假物的橄榄油和大豆油，并确定阿甘油的存在。ITS区域以及叶绿体trnL-F和rbcL基因是目标标记，通过实时PCR分别能够检测低至0.01 pg、0.1 pg和3.2 pg的阿甘油、橄榄油和大豆油DNA。此外，为了提出实用的定量方法，使用标准化ΔCq方法开发了两种校准模型，以估计阿甘油与橄榄油或大豆油的潜在掺假情况。结果能够分别检测出阿甘油中50 - 1%和25 - 1%的橄榄油和大豆油，并进行定量。两种方法都提供了可接受的性能参数和准确的测定结果，对盲样混合物的适用性证明了这一点。在此，首次提出新的定性和定量PCR检测方法，作为可靠且高通量的工具来鉴定和评估阿甘油的价值。
