My name is Amarachi Irobi, a content writer and food lover who loves to explore traditional African cuisine.
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Table of Contents
An Overview on Olives
Olives are little fruit produced by olive trees (Olea europaea) a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. The species is cultivated in all the countries of the Mediterranean, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, and South Africa. Olea europaea is the type species for the genus Olea.
They are related to mangoes, cherries, peaches, almonds, and pistachios, and are classified as drupes, or stone fruits.
The olive tree, Olea europaea, is a Mediterranean evergreen tree or shrub native to Asia, Africa, and Europe.
It is short and squat, rarely reaching a height of more than 8–15 m (26–49 ft).
‘Pisciottana,’ a rare variety found exclusively in the area near Pisciotta in the Campania region of southern Italy, regularly exceeds this, with huge trunk diameters.
The oblong silvery green leaves are 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long and 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) wide and measure 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long and 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) wide.
Typically, the trunk is gnarled and twisted.
The small, white, feathery flowers with ten-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens, and bifid stigma are borne in racemes in the axils of the leaves on the previous year’s wood.
When fully ripe, the fruit is a small drupe measuring 1–2.5 cm (0.39–0.98 in) in length, with a thinner flesh and smaller size than orchard cultivars.
Olives are collected when they are between green and purple in color.
Canned black olives are frequently chemically blackened (see below for more information on this technique) and may contain the chemical ferrous gluconate to improve appearance.
Olea europaea has a seed that is known as a “pit” in American English and a “stone” in British English.
Olives in Africa
The African Olive (Olea Europea subspecies Africana), also known as Woira-woira in Amharic, is a wild olive variety endemic to Ethiopia that can be found in the dry woods of eastern Africa, as well as southern Africa, Arabia, India, and China.
It thrives in forests, but it can also withstand droughts and poor soils.
It may reach a height of 45 feet, with greenish-grayfoliage, and a crooked trunk.
The flowers are white, and the fruit is little with little flesh; it matures to a purple-blackcolor, and it does not generate oil, but it serves as food for humans as well as animals such as baboons, monkeys, and birds.
This tree’s wood is used to make firewood, poles, and furniture, as well as medicine to treat malaria, high blood pressure, and sore throat.
In 2019, Morocco was the leading North African country in terms of olives production, which exceeded 1.9 million metric tons. Egypt ranked second with nearly 1.1 million metric tons. Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya followed in terms of domestic olive production.
South Africa
The evergreen African Wild Olive grows in the Afromontane forests in Sudan, Somalia, Eastern tropical Africa, and South Africa. The Olive tree prefers the drier highland forests between 1,250 and 3,000 meters above sea level.
It grows between 5 and 15 meters tall, with many branches and a circular crown, and is frequently seen adjacent to Juniperus (the East African pencil cedar). The Olive tree was first planted in South Africa by Jan Van Riebeeck in 1661. Its cousin, the wild olives (Olea Africana) is native to the region but is inedible.
Hundreds of years transpired after the first olive trees were planted before olive oil production began.
Ferdinando Costa planted an orchard in Paarl in 1936, which was the first commercial olive grove.
In South Africa today, there are over 120 olive producers, most of whom are centered in the Western Cape region. Olive oil production in South Africa is more of a highly made art than a basic manufacturing process, with tiny, expansive gardens and hand-harvested olives.
Ethiopia
This tree is usually found as a relic tree in monasteries, communities, churches, and Afromontane natural forests in Tigray, Ethiopia.
Morocco
Morocco is the world’s second-largest producer of table olives and olive oil, and the sixth-largest producer of olive oil.
Marrakesh, Casablanca, Meknes, and Fez are the country’s key olive-producingregions.
Marrakesh is known for its table olives, whereas Meknes and Fez are known for their olive oil.
The olive tree was brought to Morocco by Greek colonists from Sicily.
The colonists introduced the olive tree to the island and transplanted trees to the mainland.
The olive was eventually carried west as trade networks evolved.
Olive cultivation is the heart of Moroccan cuisine. They are served as an appetizer in Morocco, with herbs such as thyme, rosemary, and oregano, while crushed olives are used to make fuel and “Saboun El Baldi.”
When it comes to olive exports to the global market, Morocco is a significant player.
There’s a lot to know about olives and how beneficial they are. Here are 9 interesting facts about olives you should know:
Here are 6 Unbelievable Facts About Olives
1. Olive Oil and its By-Products
Olive oilis the oil derived from the ripening fruit of the olive tree, Olea europaea.
The oil ranges in color from pure yellow to golden, with a greenish tinge in some cultivars obtained from unripe fruit.
Almost every country that grows olives produces oils with different characteristics and quality, with the differences dependent on the district and the freshness of the fruit.
Pure olive oil is mostly used in cooking and in the preservation of foods, especially canned fish.
It’s also used in the textile sector for wool combing, in the pharmaceutical business for medical purposes, in the production of high-quality castile soap, and as a lubricant.
Olive oil is used healthwise for heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
By-Products
Olive oil extraction generates several by-products that can be used to feed animals, particularly the cakes and pomaces obtained from the extraction process, and leaves and other residues resulting from the cleaning operations. The young shoots coming out from the base of the tree can be browsed by sheep and the olives themselves can be eaten by pigs in extensive systems, such as those producing the Jamón ibérico in Spain
Olive Cake
Image from Dogus Pirina
The olive cake is one of the by-products of the olive oil production process.
The olive is made up of four parts: skin, pulp, stonewall, and kernel.
Water and oil, which are largely removed from the olive during processing, run through all of this physical matter.
Approximately 35% of the fruit will be left as olive cake after the extraction procedure.
Olive cake production was predicted to be around 3 million tonnes worldwide in 1985.
Uses of olive cake
Heating is the most typical application for olive cake. Because there are still small amounts of olive oil in the cake, it burns quite effectively in fireplaces and heating furnaces when dried.
The olive cake could be used as fresh, ensiled, dried, or as a component of concentrated pellets and multi-nutrient feed blocks in animal and especially ruminant diets.
Other by-products
Exhausted or defatted olive oil cake, obtained by mechanical and solvent extraction. This product contains stones and less residual oil than the previous one.
Crude olive oil cake without stones, obtained by mechanical extraction and de-stoning. This product contains residual oil and no stones.
Exhausted or defatted olive oil cake without stones, obtained by solvent extraction and de-stoning. This product contains little residual oil and no stones.
Olive oil pulp, obtained after stone removal followed by mechanical extraction.
Exhausted olive oil pulp, after stone removal and solvent extraction.
Olive oil vegetation water (“black water” or alpechin), obtained by centrifugation or sedimentation of the oil. This sugar-rich product is sirupy, black and bitter with a distinctive odour due to polyphenols and other substances. It can be (partially) dried, resulting in a molasse-like product.
The Extraction Process
Crushing, malaxation, and centrifugation are the three primary stages in the traditional extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) extraction procedure.
Olive fruits are crushed using a stone mill, hammers, disc crushers, de-stoning equipment, or blades after being washed.
The goal of this step is to make it easier for the oil droplets to escape from the Elaioplasts.
The minimal size for continuous separation of olive oil is 30 m, yet after crushing, only 45 percent of the oil droplets have a diameter greater than 30 m.
With the development of bigger diameter drops from the oil droplets caused by malaxation, this ratio reaches 80%.
The major steps that determine the quality and quantity of oil are malaxation and crushing.
2. Nutritional Facts About Olives
Nutrition facts
Olives contain 115–145 calories per 3.5 ounces (100 grams), or about 59 calories for 10 olives.
The nutrition facts for 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of ripe, canned olives are:
Calories: 115
Water: 80%
Protein: 0.8 grams
Carbs: 6.3 grams
Sugar: 0 grams
Fiber: 3.2 grams
Fat: 10.7 grams
Saturated: 1.42 grams
Monounsaturated: 7.89 grams
Polyunsaturated: 0.91 grams
3. What are the Benefits of Eating Olives?
Ozonated Olive Oil
Olive oil infused with ozone (ozonated olive oil) is used to treat everything from bee stings and bug bites to bacterial and fungal skin illnesses, as well as cancer.
The FDA has approved the use of ozone to combat bacteria on food, including meat and poultry, but the food sector has been slow to accept it.
Because ozone is so unstable, it must be manufactured on-site.
Topical olive oil formulations containing ozone are unlikely to remain stable after transportation.
There are no medical uses for ozone or ozonated olive oil that have been proved in clinical trials.
Antibacterial creams applied to the skin are a superior option.
Use of Olive Leaf in Treating Infections and Diseases
Influenza, swine flu, the common cold, meningitis, Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), encephalitis, herpes, shingles, HIV/ARC/AIDS, and hepatitis B are among the viral, bacterial, and other illnesses that olive leaf is used to treat.
Olive leaf is also used to treat pneumonia, chronic fatigue syndrome, tuberculosis (TB), gonorrhea, fever, malaria, dengue fever, “blood poisoning” (bacterial infections in the bloodstream), severe diarrhea, infections of the teeth, ears, and urinary tract, and infections after surgery.
High blood pressure, diabetes, hay fever, enhancing kidney and digestive function, and boosting urine flow are some of the other uses.
Cardiovascular Benefits
Blood vessels are damaged and fat builds up in arteries when free radicals oxidize cholesterol, potentially leading to a heart attack.
The antioxidant elements in black olives aid to reduce cholesterol oxidation, which helps to avoid heart disease.
Olives do have fat, but it’s the good kind, monounsaturated fat, which has been shown to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and raise good cholesterol.
Monounsaturated fatty acids, which are abundant in olives, have been associated to decreasing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol while preserving HDL levels (“good” cholesterol”).
Olive polyphenols’ potent antioxidant qualities may help protect against oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, two major causes of heart disease.
Cancer Prevention
Vitamin E, which is abundant in black olives, has a remarkable ability to neutralize free radicals in body fat.
Vitamin E can make cellular activities safer, especially when dealing with the stable monounsaturated fats found in olives.
When such processes as mitochondrial energy generation aren’t effectively safeguarded, the resulting free radicals can cause oxidation, harming a cell’s mitochondria and preventing it from producing enough energy to meet its needs.
A cell’s DNA can be damaged, causing it to mutate and become malignant.
According to studies, a diet supplemented with olive oil reduces the risk of colon cancer to practically the same level as a diet high in fish oil.
Olives protect the tissues of essential organs (including your brain!) from damaging and perhaps irreparable damage by reducing oxidative stress induced by inflammation.
Another advantage is that olives contain vitamin E, an antioxidant that has been linked to increased cognition and a lower risk of cognitive decline.
Diets high in olive oil as a primary fat source have been linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Eye Health
One cup of black olives includes 10% of the daily recommended consumption of vitamin A, which is essential for eye health when converted to the retinal form.
It improves night vision by allowing the eye to discriminate between light and dark.
Vitamin A is also thought to be useful in the treatment of cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and other age-related ocular illnesses.
4. The Bitter Truth About Olives
A luscious-looking olive plucked from a sun-warmed tree is revolting. Oleuropein, a phenolic molecule bitter enough to shrivel your teeth, is the ingredient that renders it essentially inedible.
Bitterness serves as a defense strategy for olives, allowing them to fend off unwanted microbes and seed-crunching animals.
Birds disseminate olives in the wild, avoiding the bitterness issue by consuming them whole.
5. Colors of Olives
Image from Knowledge Nuts
The color of an olive is an indication of its ripeness. Green olives ripen and become black olives. Or rather, they transform from green to light brown, to a vibrant red and purple, to the deepest, darkest black. In general, the darker the olive, the riper it was when it was plucked from the tree.
Green olives are often gathered between September and October in the northern hemisphere, at the commencement of the harvest season.
They have a nice, nutty flavor and a sturdy texture.
Black(er) olives are softer, richer, and meatier, and are harvested throughout November and December, sometimes as late as January.
6. Fun fact
It takes approximately 7 liters of olives for the production of one liter of olive oil.
The Different Types of Olives
There are so many varieties of olive tree species. There are over a hundred, each with a unique taste, color, and texture. Here are the top two.
Agrinion olive
Alfonso
Beldi
Gordal
Kalamate
Leccino
Manzanilla
Nicoise
Nyon
Picholine
Picual
Lugano
Gemlik
Cordovil
Are Green or Black Olives Healthier?
The color of an olive, whether green or black, is based on when an olive is picked and preserved. Green olives are unripe, but black olives are collected after they have ripened. Let’s not forget about preservation methods, as they play a role in these two colors as well.
Typically, green olives are soaked in lye (a chemical solution) and then fermented in brine. To minimize bitterness, black olives are steeped in lye and then cured in brine, just like green olives. The bitterness of the olive decreases as it soaks in the solution for longer periods of time.
Because olives are ingested in such little quantities, there isn’t much of a difference between green and black olives. Black and green olives have essentially comparable nutritional profiles. The sodium concentration of green and black olives differs the most nutritionally. Green olives have nearly twice as much sodium as black olives. The color difference is mostly attributable to the ripeness of the olive at the time of harvest, but it is also influenced by processing procedures.
Now you have in-depth knowledge about olives, how would you be incorporating them into your daily meal?
