Penny le Couteur & Jay Burreson (45 page)

14. OLEIC ACID

A
CHEMICAL EXPLANATION of the prime condition for the trading of goods is “highly desired molecules unevenly distributed throughout the world.” Many of the compounds we have considered—those in spices, tea, coffee, opium, tobacco, rubber, and dyes—fit this definition, as does oleic acid, a molecule found in abundance in the oil pressed from the small green fruit of the olive tree. Olive oil, a valued trade item for thousands of years, has been called the lifeblood of the societies that developed around the Mediterranean Sea. Even as civilizations rose and fell in the region, the olive tree and its golden oil were always at the base of their prosperity and at the heart of their culture.

Myths and legends about the olive tree and its origin abound. Isis, goddess of the ancient Egyptians, allegedly introduced the olive and its bountiful harvest to humanity. Roman mythology credits Hercules with bringing the olive tree from North Africa; the Roman goddess Minerva supposedly taught the art of cultivation of the olive tree and extraction of its oil. Another legend claims the olive goes back to the first man; the first olive tree is said to have grown out of the ground on Adam's tomb.

The ancient Greeks told of a contest between Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Athena, goddess of peace and wisdom. The victor would be the one who produced the most useful gift for the people of the newly built city in the region known as Attica. Poseidon struck a rock with his trident and a spring appeared. Water began to flow, and from the spring the horse appeared—a symbol of strength and power and an invaluable aid in war. When Athena's turn came, she threw her spear into the ground, and it turned into the olive tree—a symbol of peace and a provider of food and fuel. Athena's gift was considered the greater, and the new city, Athens, was named in her honor. The olive is still considered a divine gift. An olive tree still grows atop the Acropolis in Athens.

The geographic origin of the olive tree is debatable. Fossil evidence of what is believed to be an ancestor of the modern olive tree has been found in both Italy and Greece. The first cultivation of olive trees is usually ascribed to lands around the eastern Mediterranean—to various regions in the present-day countries of Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. The olive tree,
Olea europaea,
the only species of the
Olea
family grown for its fruit, has been cultivated for at least five thousand and probably as long as seven thousand years.

From the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, olive cultivation spread to Palestine and on to Egypt. Some authorities believe this cultivation started in Crete, where by 2000 B.C. a flourishing industry exported the oil to Greece, to North Africa, and to Asia Minor. As their colonies grew, the Greeks took the olive tree to Italy, France, Spain and Tunisia. When the Roman Empire expanded, the olive culture also expanded throughout the whole Mediterranean basin. For centuries, olive oil was the most important trading commodity of the region.

Olive tree atop the Acropolis in Athens.
(Photo by Peter Le Couteur)

As well as its obvious role supplying valuable calories as a food, olive oil was used in many other aspects of everyday life by the people living around the Mediterranean. Lamps filled with olive oil lit the dark evenings. The oil was used for cosmetic purposes; both the Greeks and Romans rubbed it into their skin after bathing. Athletes considered olive oil massages essential to keep muscles supple. Wrestlers added a coating of sand or dust to their layer of oil to allow their opponent a grip. Rituals after athletic events involved bathing and more olive oil, massaged into the skin to soothe and heal abrasions. Women used olive oil to keep their skin looking young and their hair shiny. It was thought to help prevent baldness and promote strength. Compounds responsible for fragrance and flavor in herbs are very often soluble in oils, so bay, sesame, rose, fennel, mint, juniper, sage, and other leaves and flowers were used to infuse olive oil, producing exotic and highly prized scented mixtures. Physicians in Greece prescribed olive oil or some of these blends for numerous ailments, including nausea, cholera, ulcers, and insomnia. Numerous references to olive oil, taken internally or applied externally, appear in early Egyptian medical texts. Even the leaves of the olive tree were used to reduce fevers and provide relief from malaria. These leaves, we now know, contain salicylic acid, the same molecule as in the willow tree and meadowsweet plant from which Felix Hofmann developed aspirin in 1893.

The importance of olive oil to the people of the Mediterranean is reflected in their writings and even their laws. The Greek poet Homer called it “liquid gold.” The Greek philosopher Democritus believed a diet of honey and olive oil could allow a man to live to be a hundred, an extremely old age in a time where life expectancy hovered around forty years. In the sixth century B.C. the Athenian legislator Solon—whose other deeds included establishing a humane code of laws, popular courts, the right of assembly, and a senate—introduced laws protecting olive trees. In a grove only two trees could be removed each year. Breaking this law incurred severe penalties, including execution.

There are more than a hundred references in the Bible to olives and olive oil. For example: the dove brings an olive sprig back to Noah after the flood, Moses is instructed to prepare an anointing mixture of spices and olive oil, the Good Samaritan pours wine and olive oil into the wounds of the robbers' victim, and the wise virgins keep their lamps filled with olive oil. We have the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem. The Hebrew king David appointed guards to protect his olive groves and warehouses. The Roman historian Pliny, in the first century A.D., referred to Italy having the best olive oil in the Mediterranean. Virgil praised the olive—“Thus you shall cultivate the rich olive, beloved of Peace.”

With this integration of lore of olives into religion, mythology, and poetry as well as everyday life, it is not surprising that the olive tree came to be a symbol for many cultures. In ancient Greece, presumably because a plentiful supply of olive oil for food and lamps implied prosperity that was absent during times of war, the olive became synonymous with times of peace. We still talk about extending the olive branch when we mean an attempt to make peace. The olive was also considered a symbol of victory, and winners at the original Olympic Games were awarded a wreath made of olive leaves as well as a supply of its oil. Olive groves were often targeted during war, as destruction of an enemy's olive groves not only eliminated a major food source but also inflicted a devastating psychological blow. The olive tree represented wisdom and renewal as well; olive trees that appeared to have been destroyed by fire or felling often sprouted new shoots and eventually bore fruit again.

Finally, the olive represented strength (an olive trunk was the staff of Hercules) and sacrifice (the cross to which Christ was nailed was supposedly made of olive wood). At various times and in various cultures the olive has symbolized power and wealth, virginity, and fertility. Olive oil has been used for centuries to anoint kings, emperors, and bishops at their coronations or ordinations. Saul, the first king of Israel, had olive oil rubbed onto his forehead at his crowning. Hundreds of years later, on the other side of the Mediterranean, the first king of the Franks, Clovis, was anointed with olive oil at his coronation, becoming Louis the First. Thirty-four more French monarchs were anointed with oil from the same pear-shaped vial, until it was destroyed during the French Revolution.

The olive tree is remarkably hardy. It needs a climate with a short cold winter to set the fruit and no blossom-killing spring frosts. A long, hot summer and a mellow fall allow the fruit to ripen. The Mediterranean Sea cools its African coast and warms its northern shores, making the region ideally suited for the cultivation of the olive. Inland, away from the moderating effect of a large body of water, the olive does not grow. Olive trees can survive where there is very little rainfall. Their long taproot penetrates deeply to find water, and the leaves are narrow and leathery with a slightly fuzzy, silvery underside—adaptations that prevent loss of water through evaporation. The olive can survive periods of drought and can grow in rocky soil and on stony terraces. Extreme frost and ice storms may snap branches and crack trunks, but the tenacious olive, even if it appears to be destroyed by the cold, will regenerate and send out fresh green suckers the following spring. Little wonder that the people who were dependent on the olive tree for thousands of years came to venerate it.

Oils have been extracted from many plants: walnuts and almonds, corn, sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, coconuts, soybeans, and peanuts, to name a few. Oils—and fats, their chemically very close cousins usually from animal sources—have long been valued for food, for lighting, and for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. But no other oil or fat has ever become so much part of the culture and economy, so intertwined in the hearts and minds of the people, or so important to the growth of Western civilization as has the oil from the fruit of the olive tree.

The chemical difference between olive oil and any other oil or fat is very small. But once again a very small difference accounts for a large part of the course of human history. We do not think it too speculative to assert that without oleic acid—named after the olive and the molecule that differentiates olive oil from other oils or fats—the development of Western civilization and democracy might have followed a very different path.

Fats and oils are known as triglycerides. They are all compounds formed from a glycerol (also called glycerin) molecule and three molecules of fatty acid.

Fatty acids are long chains of carbon atoms with an acid group, COOH (or HOOC), at one end:

Although they are simple molecules, fatty acids have a number of carbon atoms, so it is often clearer to represent them in zigzag format, where every intersection and each end of a line represents a carbon atom and most of the hydrogen atoms are not shown at all.