Argan oil

Argan oil offers a strong, wild taste. In Berber tradition, it is used in the preparation of choice dishes: consumed plain on bread or in all kinds of cooking. It is a major ingredient in amlou, a sweet treat served to guests mixed with crushed almonds and honey, which is said to have aphrodisiac properties.

For the past ten years or so, it has entered European cuisine, introduced by great chefs inspired by its originality. It is used in the composition of subtle seasonings, or as a finishing touch on fish dishes, strong meats or carpaccios. We particularly recommend it for seasoning salads, or just a drizzle as a finishing touch on tagines, couscous, grilled tomatoes, grilled peppers and to lightly enhance semolina. Sprinkle a few drops on a strong, rather semi-dry cheese or a tender goat cheese with fresh coriander.

Botany

The Argan tree, Argania spinosa L., of the Sapotaceae family, is a specifically Moroccan tree endemic to Morocco and a botanical curiosity. Its geographical area covers 800,000 hectares in the greater Essaouira-Agadir region, passing through Taroudant. It is a thorny tree that can exceed 10 meters in height and 200 years of age, with sub-persistent leaves that can fall during prolonged droughts, thus allowing it to remain in a state of slowed life. Its short trunk, which barely exceeds 2 m in height when isolated, can reach 1.50 m in diameter.

The persistent bark is of the "snake skin" or reptilian type, smooth in its youth, becoming rough thereafter.

The leaves are small, lanceolate, persistent and leathery. Flowering takes place in spring or autumn depending on climatic conditions. The hermaphroditic flowers are greenish-yellow in color. The fruit is an oval green drupe. Maturation takes place from May to September. A forest in danger: A dahir (decree) dated March 4, 1925, protects the argan forest by establishing the principle of the State's superior right over the argan forest, but the usufruct (fruits, pastures, wood) is left to the local population. Following overexploitation that put the forest in danger, the argan forest was classified, in 1998, as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. (The UNESCO MAB program)

Oil production, two processes are used

Traditional ancestral

The fruits are harvested and sun-dried. The dried fruits are pulped and the nuts are crushed between two stones by Berber women. The small almonds inside, called "kernels", are sorted and then roasted in an earthenware dish over a wood fire fueled by the fruit shells. These grilled kernels are then crushed into a paste using a hand-turned stone, known as a traditional hand mill. This paste is then kneaded, still by hand, by adding lukewarm water until the oil gradually extracts itself and floats on top of the paste. The oil is collected and placed in makeshift containers. This process is extremely time-consuming; extracting one liter of oil requires 10 to 12 hours of work.

Production of our Argan oil

The retrieval of the kernels remains unchanged. It is the subsequent steps of the process, the most arduous to perform manually, that have been mechanized. The kernels are roasted in a kind of roaster then pressed by a mechanical press. The production is carried out only by mechanical processes, without the addition of chemicals or even water. The oil is then decanted, filtered, and bottled.

We obtain a traditional type of argan oil, amber in color, also known as "from roasted kernels".

If the kernels are not roasted, we obtain a golden-yellow oil called "cold-pressed" or "from unroasted kernels".

Both types of oil have the same properties and can be used interchangeably in food or on the skin.

However, we recommend the roasted version for gastronomy because this oil has a more pronounced aromatic development.

The unroasted version, less fragrant and less distinct in taste, is more suitable for external use.

In the context of production under an "Organic Farming" label, only whole fruits can be used. This ensures that kernels regurgitated by goats (fond of argan fruit) are excluded from production.

It takes 100kg of fruit to obtain 1.5 liters of oil

100 kg of ripe fruit yield 60 kg of dried fruit, including 30 kg of dried pulp and 30 kg of kernel. These 30 kg of kernel yield approximately 27 kg of shell and 3 kg of kernels. From these, 1.5 liters of oil will be extracted.

Argan oil was officially approved for consumption in 2002 based on a food safety dossier that our company submitted to afssa (French Agency for Food Safety) and the DGCCRF (General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control)

Dietary benefits

Its properties are due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic acid and linoleic acid. The latter is called "essential" because it is indispensable to our body, which cannot synthesize it. It must therefore be supplied by our diet.

Oleic acid plays a regulatory role in lipid and cholesterol metabolism. Its transformation leads to important derivatives, for example, in the constitution of the myelin sheath surrounding nerves.

Linoleic acid (Omega 6), essential for life, plays an important role in maintaining healthy skin (elasticity, healing), and the integrity of intracellular organelle membranes. Omega-6 deficiencies lead to growth disorders, kidney and blood pressure dysfunction, as well as skin lesions.

Linoleic acid helps prevent cardiovascular diseases by helping to lower cholesterol levels.

Protection against cardiovascular diseases

The latest human research (Derouiche A. and coll Ann Nutr Metab. 2005 ;49(3):196-201) has shown that argan oil consumption significantly increases the level of good cholesterol (c-HDL) and vitamin E in the blood. Argan oil consumption also decreases triglyceride (TG) levels. When their concentration abnormally increases in the bloodstream, these become cardiovascular risk factors, similar to cholesterol.