Super strain argan oil now made in Israel
By Karin Kloosterman December 4, 2011, 12:00 am
Argan oil, the much-in-demand product of the endangered Moroccan argan tree, is now available in a hardy ‘super’ strain developed in Israel.
Argan 100 is a “super” strain developed to grow in Israel.
There isn’t much left for chefs to discover in this world. With cheap flights and international commerce, our global village has been combed over with a fork, quite literally. Most of the best coffees, chocolates and delicacies from every corner of the globe have been discovered and made available to shoppers.
But some of these new greats can’t keep up with demand. Take, for example, argan oil, a rare product of the Moroccan argan tree.
A relative newcomer to the kitchens of top chefs and foodies, argan oil is celebrated as the latest “super food” — chockfull of amino acids and anti-aging compounds. Rich in vitamin E, argan oil is also coveted by cosmetics companies and hair product developers for qualities that appear to surpass any other oil on the market.“Argan oil is a new oil of the modern world,” says Chaim Oren, chief agronomist at the company Sivan SM, which is working to grow argan trees and produce argan oil in Israel.
“It is the diamond of all oil. It has a better effect on the human skin, on blood — more than any other product that exists in the world today,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
“You don’t have to wait years to see results,” he says. “Argan oil affects blood fat rapidly and can reduce cholesterol and triglycerides in only one month of treatment.”
Ten times more oil
The problem with argan oil, which according to urban legend can only be processed by the digestive tract of a goat, is that it is very limited in quantity, and its price reflects the supply and demand. The United Nations and other bodies are working in Morocco to protect argan arbors, which are disappearing due to deforestation and overgrazing.
Oil-producing argan orchards are planted in Israel’s Ashkelon, Arava, Jericho Valley, and Negev regions.
As the world’s appetite for this new oil grows, Sivan SM hopes to help meet growing demand with Argan 100, a hearty strain developed to grow in the Arava Valley, in the Negev Desert and near the city of Ashkelon – as well as in similar climates anywhere in the world.
Oren began his argan breeding program 25 years ago, and today the idea has borne fruit in the form of a high-yielding, pest-resistant and drought-tolerant tree that seems to thrive in the harsh Israeli desert. The company is cloning this mother tree and selling its cultivars. The oil is available to wholesalers and to retail customers in limited supply.
Professor Elaine Solowey from the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has worked with argan trees since 1985, including a stint at the National School of Agriculture in Meknes, Morocco. She believes that the trees could also grow as far north as the Galilee region of Israel.
Sivan manages about 125 acres of 2,500 trees, while estimates suggest that Israel has about 20,000 argan trees in total. Each Israeli tree provides 220 pounds of fruit, which can make two liters of oil.
Building business sustainably
Sivan is keeping its operations lean and is focusing on building a sustainable business — one that grows naturally, with the trees, over time. Based in Ramat Hasharon, it employs six people, plus a staff to maintain the argan orchards and to process the oil.
The hard shell of the argan nut doesn’t require a goat to remove it.
In business since 2007, Sivan already is having a hard time keeping argan oil on the grocery shelves. They hope that their cultivars, which require much less water to sustain, will be a hit among fruit and tree growers everywhere.
As for the goats in the urban legend, Oren doesn’t think that goats were ever “employed” to help digest the hard shell of the argan nut to extract the oil. He guesses that in the days of yore, those argan nuts snatched from the trees by hungry goats didn’t go to waste. The undigested nuts were simply added to the oil press.
“You don’t need goats to get better oil,” he asserts. “You just need something to break the shell open. It is very strong. As for most of the companies that make argan oil in Morocco, I don’t think they collect it from the goats,” he says.
Although he wasn’t completely sure. It is however believed that it is quitepossible that goats in tree is a tourist trap and ploy by morroccan producers
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More About Israel’s Argan Oil
Pure argan oil, regarded as one of the best and most valuable oils in the world, is extracted from nuts that grow on the argan tree. It is known that in Morocco only one liter of oil is produced from the crop of 6–8 argan trees.
In the Oren farm the process of extracting the oil is automated and is carried out by squeezing the nut’s kernel; one liter of oil is produced from 50 kg of fruit. First the nuts are harvested and the pulp that covers them, similar to the pulp of the green almond, is dried. After drying the pulp, which is the external shell, the nut is shelled and the kernel inside is removed. The nut is brown and it is regarded as one of the hardest nuts to crack.
In Morocco you can see women collecting the nuts from within goat excrement, cracking them with stones and extracting the oil by hand; however, nowadays the process is carried out mechanically by advanced crude methods by some comapnies in Morrocco which over harvest the trees.
Another process:
The nuts are broken by a special machine that breaks a small number of nuts each time. Each nut contains one or two white kernels the thickness of sheet of paper. The kernels are placed in a machine which grinds them in order to extract every drop of argan oil. As the kernel does not contain water, there is no need to separate oil and water as is done when producing olive oil for example. The oil is cold-pressed, no heat is used and no other material is added. At the end of the process, which takes many hours, a yellowish oil is produced, and it is filtered to separate the minuscule particles of the kernels floating in it, in order to receive clear yellow argan oil.
The pure cold-pressed argan oil is intended for both internal and external uses. The oil is known to help strengthen the body’s immune system and balance blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Use of the oil on the skin accelerates the rate of replacement of the cells and slows down the appearance of wrinkles, helps treat dry skin, scars, cuts, chafing, greatly helps to heal burns and helps treat psoriasis and eczema. The oil is known to strengthen nails and is recommended for hair care.
In Morocco – and in this way we also sometimes extract the pure argan oil in another way that is different from how the white kernels are handled – after cracking the nuts and before extracting the oil from the kernels, they are roasted for a few minutes. We then wait until they cool and continue with the above process. This produces oil with a reddish-brown color and a nutty aroma. This oil is used mainly to season food or to add to high-quality baked products. This dark argan oil is in high demand by the best chefs because of the special flavor it gives to food. It is sufficient to sprinkle only a few drops of argan oil in order to receive a rich nutty taste and wonderful aroma.
The argan tree – Argania spinosa
In the Oren farm there are orchards of argan trees from which we today produce the luxury oil known for its many health-giving and cosmetic properties and for seasoning food.
The argan tree originates from south-west Morocco, where 1 liter of oil only is produced from 6 to 8 trees. The argan tree is a prickly tree: it reaches a height of up to 10 meters, the width of the tree’s foliage is about 4 meters, its roots reach a depth of about 8 meters and a length of up to 90 meters. For this reason there are places where the trees are planted to stop soil erosion. The tree’s trunk is typically very hard and it is therefore known as the iron tree, and is used to make luxury furniture.
The tree can live for 200 years.
The fruit of the argan tree is a nut from which oil is extracted for food and cosmetic use. The oil is regarded as high-quality and valuable and it is renowned worldwide for its health and cosmetic properties.
The argan tree has been used for hundreds of years in Morocco by the Berbers to produce pure argan oil. In Morocco tourists are still taken to see the goats that climb on the branches of the argan trees and eat the fruit. The goats digest the external shell, the nuts are collected from their excrement and are shelled, and the oil is extracted from the kernels.
In recent years oil presses with mechanical equipment have been built to extract the oil using modern methods as distinct from the traditional manual method.
The trees in Morocco are in danger of extinction and therefore a lobby of Prince Albert of Monaco, chefs, and influential people organized a struggle to preserve the tree due to recognition of the oil’s health-giving seasoning and cosmetic properties. UNESCO, also declared an area of more than 2,560,000 hectares between the Atlas Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean a biosphere reserve. The significance of the declaration is that the organization finances the costs involved in preserving the trees.
Argan oil for eating is produced from the kernels inside the nuts. Among the oil’s healthy properties it is known that regular consumption helps immunize the body and balance blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. The argan oil with the reddish color and nutty taste which is used to season food is extracted from kernels that have been roasted.
Argan oil is known for its many cosmetic uses as it contains vitamin E and essential fatty acids. It encourages renewal of cells, is used to nourish dry skin, slow the process of the appearance of wrinkles, and for this reason it is added to luxury creams. The oil is known to help heal scars, chickenpox, acne, psoriasis, burns, skin diseases and dryness of the scalp.
The oil is used for hair care: it gives hair volume, a sheen, softness, and helps join split ends.
The oil helps strengthen split and broken nails.
Some people use the oil to relieve painful joints and rheumatic pains.
Because of these and other properties, the argan tree is known as the tree of life.
