Amurca
Byproduct of olive oil production
Amurca is the Latin name for the bitter-tasting, dark-colored, watery sediment that settles out of unfiltered olive oil over time. It has been known in English as "olive oil lees"[1] and recently as "olive mill waste water (OMWW)".[2] Historically, amurca was used for numerous purposes, as first described by Cato the Elder in De Agri Cultura, and later by Pliny the Elder.[3] Cato mentions its uses as a building material (128), pesticide (91, 92, 96, 98), herbicide (91, 129), dietary supplement for oxen (103) and trees (36, 93), food preservative (99, 101), as a maintenance product for leather (97), bronze vessel (98), and vases (100), and as a treatment for firewood in order to avoid smoke (130).[4]
References
- ^ Sana Janakat et al., "Antimicrobial activity of amurca (olive oil lees) extract against selected foodborne pathogens" in Food Science and Technology [Campinas] vol. 35 (2015) pp. 259-265
- ^ Jose Antonio Morillo-Pérez et al., "Bioremediation and biovalorisation of olive-mill wastes" in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology vol. 82 (2009) pp. 25-39; Giulia Crouch, "‘Nonna Caterina was right’: olive oil wastewater heralded as new superfood" in The Guardian (24 August 2024)
- ^ Pliny, John Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley (1856). The Natural History of Pliny: Amurca of Olives – Twenty-one Remedies. p. 486.
- ^ "LacusCurtius • Cato on Agriculture — Sections 126‑134".
External links
- Cato the Elder on Agriculture
- Olives in Antiquity (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)
- Forerunners of Pesticides in Classical Greece and Rome
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Amurca". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.
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