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| Argan Oil – The Most Exclusive Natural Oil In The World |
The local women would process around 30 kilos of Argan fruits in almost 14 hours of pure hard work, only to gain enough Argan kernels for 1 liter of its rare oil.
Depending on the kind of the Argan oil extracted (culinary or cosmetic), this God-sent precious gift finds use in a wide variety of life areas.
Not only it’s a highly coveted ingredient in almost every gourmet cuisine nowadays, but also it also gained fame in medicine as well as in cosmetics and beauty fields.
The Argan tree is one of the oldest trees in the world and is now found in an intramontane area with very low average rainfall covering more than 2,560,000 hectares.
It grows only in Morocco and because of the existential significance for the natives, the UNESCO has declared the area a protected Biosphere Reserve.
No wonder the locals call it the “tree of life” thanks to its importance and as it provides them with timber, charcoal, food for their cattle and the famous oil, which is considered one of the most valuable foods in the world in the last decade.
Extracting Argan Oil
The harvest time of the Argan fruits is from July to August.
And as opposed to the olive tree, the argania spiniosa can’t simply be shaken to speed-up the harvesting procedure.
Therefore, the women are obliged to collect the fruits from the ground and fell the rest from the tree using stones in a backbreaking process.
What also hardens the harvesting journey, is the trees’ rough & thorny twisted stems.
And although many people believe that the majority of the Argan oil on the markets today is extracted from the fruits collected by goats, this is far from being true, simply because the quantity of Argan fruits needed to satisfy the ongoing and increasing worldwide demand, is far beyond what any herd of goats can process.
After cracking the Argan nuts, which may contain two to three almond-shaped kernels, the women either traditionally roast them to refine the taste and finally grind them using a hand-stone mill to extract the culinary Argan oil or they process them naturally to yield the cosmetic one.
In the culinary version, the dough gained after grinding the roasted kernels is hand-kneaded using hot water and then pressed to separate the oil from the rest.
Modern Argan Oil Production
Nowadays, to speed up the production process, a big number of manufacturers use machines to extract Argan oil, especially the cosmetic one.
In the case of cosmetic Argan oil, there’s no water used and the kernels are pressed naturally without roasting.
This is what’s now known as “cold pressed”.
Yet, despite the options modern technology is offering, the traditional production of this miraculous oil is gaining ground again because of the high Argan oil quality reached this way.
Luckily, in both cases, to export Argan oil outside of Morocco, the producer and / or exporter must provide compliance documents proving his/her oil is respecting rigorous quality and hygiene guidelines.
This ensures, among others, the oil was produced in an environment friendly, and ecologically sustainable manner.
Argan Oil In The Gastronomy
As I stated before, in the last decades, Argan oil has gained fame not only in the cosmetic & beauty industry, but it also became one of the worldwide highly sought-after ingredients in the gourmet cuisine.
Thanks to its subtle nutty flavor, it finds uses as a stand-alone dressing or as an important luxury ingredient in salads, vegetables, fish and meat dishes to name a few.
Furthermore, the culinary version is so healthy that it deservedly outshined olive oil thanks to its natural composition.
Many renowned chefs quickly recognized that, thanks to its multifarious uses and benefits, the culinary Argan oil plays in the same league as truffles and caviar.
This is also reflected in the price of this precious oil: One liter of genuine freshly-extracted & organic culinary Argan oil costs between 90 and 120 Dollars depending on the season!
Argan Oil As A Skin And Hair Serum
Though the culinary version can be used for both kitchen as well as cosmetic purposes, yet here is the cosmetic (aka. cold-pressed) one a forerunner.
It has an amazingly excellent effect on skin, nails and hair.
Thanks to its highly active and potent ingredients, not only it soothes damaged skin, nails or hair, but it’s also an ideal solution to moisturize, hydrate sensitive, aging and / or blemished skin, brittle unruly dry hair and weak nails.
Some Medical And Medicinal Properties
This liquid gold is not only a delicacy, but also a health-elixir and a real treasure simply because of the wide list of the valuable components contained therein.
It has been clinically-proven to be the oil with the highest concentration of essential fatty acids (over 80 %) – mainly the linoleic and oleic acid.
Furthermore, besides being rich in alpha-tocopherol, which has the highest vitamin E activity, it also contains a remarkably high dose of natural antioxidants which help protect against harmful free radicals and other environmental stresses.
It’s also noteworthy that Argan oil became a kind of a particular interest to scientists thanks to its content in schottenol and spinasterol.
That said, the natives in Morocco successfuly used this for hundreds of years as a traditional multitasking remedy for:
- Stomach pain
- Intestinal problems
- Heart and circulatory problems
- Sunburn
- Disinfecting wounds
- Soothing bug bites
- Curing cuts
- Acne
- Chicken pox
- Eczema
- Rheumatism
- Joint pain
- Hemorrhoids
… and many other issues and diseases.
This scarce natural treasure has a wide benefits and uses list that I could talk about non-stop.
For more in-depth information about this magic elixir or searching a reliable source to buy argan oil, you might want to check: www.arganfarm.com
Argan Oil – The Most Exclusive Natural Oil In The World
Natural Oil, beauty, Argan Oil
via Noumydia http://noumydia.blogspot.com/2013/10/Argan-Oil-The-Most-Exclusive-Natural-Oil-In-The-World.html
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