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Why is argan oil so useful?
Traditional way of harvesting and hand pressing
About argan oil manufacturing
The fruits that have dried on the tree and had fallen to the ground are traditionally harvested by women in summer (July/August/September, depending on location above sea level and ripening) by hand from the ground because the plant has a lot of spikes and grows in thickets, which makes it impossible to shake the fruits off the tree.
Harvesting and working up of these fruits was considered to be a job for women since olden times. The fruits harvested from the ground are put into sacks (earlier they were put into baskets or bags made of dry palm leaves), then carried on barrows (earlier – by donkeys) to the warehouse where they are stored till the working up starts. During the working up, first the pulp of the fruit is removed, damaged or over ripened seeds are picked out. Firm seeds are opened with the help of two stones. The withdrawn little seeds are to be roasted. Then these seeds are grinded by hand using stone or metal grinder. The boiled water is added to this mass to make a mash out of it, and then it is stirred until a thin trickle of oil appears.
When roasting the seeds, as well as when producing pumpkin oil, a characteristic smell appears which means that bitter components are cleared away. A method of roasting accepted in food industry is used. For line of Vivasan products with argan oil argan seeds are not being roasted!
Dried up pulp and glume are used as fuel for boiler, dried up and pressed material is used as food for sheep.
Hand pressing of argan oil requires more time than machine pressing. It takes about two days of work for making 1 liter of argan oil by hand. Such pressing also requires a bigger number of fruits, about 30 kilos of fruits are needed to produce 1 liter of oil (that equals to harvest of 4-5 trees).
That explains the difference in price which exists between hand pressing and machine pressing. Hand pressing also allows reaching higher quality of argan oil.
Morocco habitants use unrefined argan oil for treating skin diseases and for beauty treatment of skin and hair. The oil has softening and anti-inflammatory effect which makes it suitable for flaky, dry and irritation-prone skin. It is used for treating acne, burns and skin flaking, the oil can also be used for rheumatism treatment.
To conclude, for manufacturing our products our company uses only unrefined argan oil made by hand-pressing.
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