FAMILY
Oleaceae

SPECIES
Olea europaea

DESCRIPTION
Olive is a long lived, gnarled, drought-resistant evergreen tree, cultivated for over 4000 years for its oil-yielding fruit.

USES Green olives are picked unripe, black olives when ripe, and both are then cured for eating. Ripe olives are repeatedly pressed for Olive Oil. Cold pressed virgin oil is the best quality, with a high anti-oxidant content. It is valued in salad oils Mediterranean cookery, and for preserving food; it is used medicinally as a laxative, liniment, and carrier oil, and in cosmetics for skin creams. Inferior oil is used in soap, lubricants, and as lamp oil. the leaves are antiseptic. Wood resin is used in bronchial inhalants and perfumes.

REMARK The flowers of Olea Fragrans scent Chinese Chulan tea. The olive branch is a symbol of peace. CONSTITUENTS The exuding gum-resin contains benzoic acid and olivile. Mannite is found in the green leaves and unripe fruit. The oil, Oleum Olivce, non-drying, fixed, solidifies on treatment with nitrous acid or mercuric nitrate, is slightly soluble in alcohol, miscible with ether, chloroform or carbon disulphide. The specific gravity is 0.910 to 0.915 at 25 degrees C. or 77 degrees F. It is pale yellow or greenish-yellow, with a faint odour and bland taste, becoming slightly acrid. At a lower temperature than 10 degrees C. or 50 degrees F. it may become a soft, granular mass. Tripalmitin crystallizes and the remaining fluid is chiefly triolein. There are also arachidic esters and a little free oleic acid.

MEDICINAL ACTION
The leaves are astringent and antiseptic. Internally, a decoction of 2 handsful boiled in a quart of water until reduced to half a pint has been used in the Levant in obstinate fevers. Both leaves and bark have valuable febrifugal qualities.
The oil is a nourishing demulcent and laxative. Externally, it relieves pruritis, the effects of stings or burns, and is a good vehicle for liniments. With alcohol it is a good hair-tonic. As a lubricant it is valuable in skin, muscular, joint, kidney and chest complaints, or abdominal chill, typhoid and scarlet fevers, plague and dropsies. Delicate babies absorb its nourishing properties well through the skin. Its value in worms or gallstones is uncertain.
Internally, it is a laxative and disperser of acids, and a mechanical antidote to irritant poisons. It is often used in enemas. It is the best fat for cooking, and a valuable article of diet for both sick and healthy of all ages. It can easily be taken with milk, orange or lemon juice, etc.

DOSAGE As a laxative, 1 to 2 fluid ounces. ADULTERANS Cotton-seed, rape, sesame, arachis and poppy-seed oils are the many adulterants found, and several official chemical tests are practiced for their detection.