REINOL and olive oil Introduction
Olive oil is the best known and most commonly used vegetal lipid in the food and diet industries due to its extraordinary nutritional and salutary properties. It has also been successfully used in therapeutical and dermatological applications Olive phytocomplexes are known for their extraordinary eudermic properties (emollient, lenitive, sebum restructuring, photo protective, anti radical etc.), but olive oil is not commonly used in cosmetic preparations. In this industry, the interest for application of olive products is more oriented towards derivatives of recent introduction to the market such as the unsaponifiable part and other elaborations REINOL produces a series of olive oil derivatives for use in the production of quality cosmetic products.
THE HISTORY OF THE OLIVE
The olive is one of the most antiquely cultivated fruit trees of the old world. The first signs of olive cultivation and production of oil extraction can be found in the 4th millennium b.c..
The geographical area involved is that of the coasts and islands of the eastern Mediterranean.
In antique civilizations, the olive was considered a sacred tree, an object of worship. A garland of olive branches was given as a prize to the winners at the Olympic games. The plant was sacred in Athens and could not be cut down or burnt; it is told that during the ransacking of Athens, the Spartans didn’t touch the olives for fear of divine vengeance.
In Egyptian archaeological findings there are traces of treatment products and cosmetics, which have been discovered to contain olive oil.
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE OLIVE OIL
There are Greek and Roman historical findings regarding the knowledge of the treatment properties of this oil. Galeno, a famous Greek doctor (130-200 D.C.) and Plinio il Vecchio, a famous latin historian and naturalist (originally from Como: 23-79 D.C.) offered recipes based on olive oil.
In antique Greece and Rome, olive oil was used as a remedy for friction, massage and as a vehicle for many medications.
The Imperator Augusto used it to massage his muscles and to keep his body in optimum shape. In the Arab world, and later also in the Mediterranean, the leaves of the olive were discovered to have astringent, tonic and febrifugal properties.