Olivo

Introduction: olive oil

Olive tree: botanical aspects and cultivation

Mature olive composition, nutritional properties

Olive harvest

Olive oil: chemical composition

Olive oil: properties and nutritional characteristics

Preparation of olive oil

Olive oil conservation

Pomace oil

Classification of olive oils, analysis and fraud

Olive oil as a laxative

Olive in herbal medicine - sea buckthorn

Cosmetic use: olive oil - Unsaponifiable with olive oil - Olive leaf extract

Olivo

European Olea L

Fam. Oleaceae

Description

OLIVE: medium-sized tree, with a twisted trunk and sparse, long-lived foliage. The leaves are opposite, lanceolate, 5-8 cm long, green, glaucous on the upper side, silvery below due to the presence of characteristic hairs. Small whitish flowers gathered in clusters. The fruit, called olive, is an oval, black drupe with a rich pulp of oil.

After the harvest the cleaned olives are crushed in the mills from which a pulp comes out that passes to the pressing. The first squeezed olive oil is the virgin one, followed by more watery portions. The oil must therefore be filtered and purified. The pressing residues are called pomace and are used in various ways .

Areal and culture

The origin of the olive tree is uncertain: some say it derives from the wild olive ( olive or wild olive ) which has a shrubby bearing, others, on the other hand, think that wild olive trees derive from cultivated wild ones. However, there are traces of olive in Europe already in the tertiary, probably it comes from Asia Minor: findings dating back to around 3000 years BC are found in Crete and Mycenae. The oldest written mention is in the Bible: the dove with the olive branch in its beak announced to Noah the end of the universal flood. Since then the olive tree has been a symbol of peace.

It is currently cultivated in the warm-temperate regions of the entire Mediterranean basin and also in America and Australia.

ADVERSITY: many; the main ones are the cold, between the meteoric ones and an insect, the olive fly ( Dacus oleae ).