Olives

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Olives (lat. Olea) - the fruits of evergreen shrubs or trees belonging to the Olive family. This plant has been cultivated since ancient times.

History

Branched olives have been cultivated as a cultivated plant since ancient times. Their images can be found even on ancient Egyptian amphoras or vases, and in the texts of those distant times, references to the olive tree are also not uncommon. By the way, the ancient Greeks believed that the olive tree was given to them by the goddess of wisdom Athena, who patronized peaceful labor. It is not for nothing that the heads of the winners of the Olympic Games were often crowned with colorful wreaths of olive branches.

Description

Olives are evergreen shrubs or trees covered with strong grayish bark.

Sessile plant buds are devoid of scales, and the leaves are located oppositely on olives. All leaves are whole and whole-edged, however, occasionally they can be serrated. As for their shape, it can be both linear-lanceolate and oblong-ovoid. Above, the leaves are painted green, and below they are usually grayish-silver. And olives, as a rule, do not have stipules.

Axillary or terminal inflorescences can form rather loose heads or luxurious brushes. The tiny, fragrant whitish flowers of olives are usually bisexual or dioecious. Their short calyxes can be either bell-shaped or goblet, and the spine-petal corollas are equipped with short tubes and small semi-ovate lobes in the amount of four or five pieces. Sometimes olives have no corollas. Flowers usually have two, three or four stamens; all of them are oppositely attached near the bases of short tubes. And almost rounded short two-celled ovaries are endowed with two ovules.

Olives are single-seeded drupes with oily pulp and brittle or hard ovoid bones. The seeds of the plant include flat germ leaves, oily cotyledons, and miniature germ roots.

Olives are always harvested still green, and they acquire their characteristic black color already during the preparation process - this color is the result of oxygenation of the brine in which the harvested fruits are placed.

Compound

In the composition of olives, you can find about a hundred different active substances. These fruits are especially rich in vitamins A, C and E. The pulp of high-quality olives consists of 50 - 75% fats, in addition, they are rich in pectins, valuable ash substances, as well as proteins and sugar. All fruit tissues also contain the most important plant lipids, and the skin of olives will delight fans of this product with the most valuable essential oils.

Benefit

Olives are extremely nutritious and incredibly healthy. The unsaturated fatty acids contained in them help to reduce the level of bad cholesterol, which in turn allows maintaining an adequate balance of vital elements in the body. In addition, the systematic use of olives has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the liver and on the activity of the digestive organs, and a decoction of fresh bark helps to normalize high blood pressure.

Also olives are used externally - in the form of oil. Such oil is an excellent helper for stings of bees, wasps and bumblebees, as well as for headaches and bruises.

Application

At the moment, the attention of consumers is offered spicy pickled, original stuffed or salted olives, as well as fruits in oil. They can be used as a stand-alone snack or added to meat dishes, soups and salads. By the way, olives contribute to a much better assimilation of food.

Olives go well with wines (especially with pink or white) - they can often be seen in some cocktails.