the olive blog

Olive Oil and Pain Relief

"Have a headache? No aspirin or ibuprofen handy? Try some olive oil -- actually, freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil would be best, according to a group of chemists, who've discovered that it contains a compound that mimics the pain-relieving action of ibuprofen." That is the lead of the Reuter's story which is now being repeated across the net. 

The press release from Nature which reports the findings is here. Nature's own site covers it here.

Like ibuprofen, freshly-pressed premium olive oils contain a chemical agent with anti-inflammatory properties. Researchers from Monell Chemical Senses Center and collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania, The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and Firmenich, Inc. calculated that a 50 g daily dose of olive oil is equivalent to about 10% of the ibuprofen dose recommended for adult pain relief.

Monell sensory scientist Paul Breslin, PhD, who directed the research together with Beauchamp said, “The Mediterranean diet, of which olive oil is a central component, has long been associated with numerous health benefits, including decreased risk of stroke, heart disease, breast cancer, lung cancer, and some dementias. Similar benefits are associated with certain NSAIDs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen. Now that we know of oleocanthal’s anti-inflammatory properties, it seems plausible that oleocanthal plays a causal role in the health benefits associated with diets where olive oil is the principal source of fat.”

Conclusion, more good news for the olive oil industry!

Cowra Confidence

As a follow up to the previous post the Australian town of Cowra is holding its annual olive oil competition. The Cowra Show* Society President Glenn Morton says:

"There is growing interest in our area, and the Cowra Show Society sees it as an educational tool for people to realise the benefits of using olive oil in their cooking. On a recent trip to Italy and Greece, I again saw the potential of the industry but the key factor of success is education of Australians, for people to see the benefits of using olive oil in place of the many poorer quality oils being used in households across Australia."

Too right Glenn!  Most of the imported olive oil is stale, tasteless and flat compared to freshness and variety of the local Australian produce.

*For non Agricultural Shows occur across Australia and consist of all manner of produce on display through to horse riding events.

More Australian Angst

The Sydney Morning Herald continues the coverage of whether Australian olive oil is as good as imported oil. The olive blog dealt with this last week and, in our experience, good Australian olive oil is world class. A couple more judges quoted by the Herald agree.  The original claim, that a lack of training in pruning and pressing led to ordinary oils, can be traced back to a, no doubt worthy, consultant offering these services. As they have done with wine, the olive blog believes new world producers will continue to innovate and begin to lead in olive oil production. The only bad reports we have had from Australia is from dissatisfaction with the results (taste wise) of planting Barnea olives trees. 

Meanwhile the article did have the following statistics reported: "The Australian Olive Association estimates there are seven to nine million olive trees in the ground - mostly planted in the past 10 years - and up to 3000 commercial growers. Australian olive oil production was only 2500 tonnes last year. This year 4000 to 6000 tonnes are expected and 30,000 tonnes is anticipated by 2010 - almost as much as is imported."

Pick and Press Your Own Olive Oil in Paros

A nice story from the Greek Island of Paros where visitors to a B&B (the Aliki Pension) can pick their own olives from a neighboring grove, watch it pressed and then bottled with their own label.  You can read more about it at the Paros Paridise site. 

Apparently, they also do singles weekends over Christmas and New Years!

Contact Information:

Michael and Karin Shepherd
Email: paroshep@otenet.gr
Phone: +30-22840-91042
Mailing address: P. O. Box 41 Paros, Greece 84400
Website: Shepherd's Aliki Villa

Sophia Loren, Spaghetti and Olive Oil

"A love of life, spaghetti and the odd bath in virgin olive oil. Everything I have I owe to spaghetti"

So says Italian actress, Sophia Loren, still looking great at 71, on her anti-aging secrets in today's Sunday Times.

Elsewhere a face pack made of tomato with honey and olive oil is reported to be her beauty secret.

Tomatoes and Olive Oil

Nigel Slater, a favorite chef of the olive blog, has a series of recipes for tomatoes and olive oil in today's UK Observer. These include Parmesan Tomatoes, Roast Tomato Sauce, Baked Tomatoes with cheese and thyme and Slow Roast Tomatoes

He is a fan of the orange Auriga tomato.

Olive Oil as a Key Word for Ad links

Ever wonder how adds are ranked when you search for "olive oil" at places like Yahoo and Google. At Yahoo, advertisers bid for keywords. The bidder prepared to pay the highest amount for a particular key word search, such as "olive oil" is ranked highest, the second highest bidder second and so forth. You can try Yahoo subsidiary Overture's tool here to see the highest bids for any keywords, or here to go straight to the results for olive oil. 

Yahoo offers advice to bidders here with various rules of thumb on how much to bid. On a product generating a 25% profit (e.g. a $25 bottle of olive oil for which the seller keeps $6.30), and for which the seller is willing to spend 30% of that profit on advertising, the total advertising cost per bottle would be $1.89.  If a seller expects a 2% conversion rate (i.e. 2 people in 100 buy the product after clicking on an ad link) then the maximum they should bid on a key word is about $0.04. 

Looking at the bids for olive oil, at the time of writing, it obvious that numerous vendors are willing to bid much higher amounts. The top bid on the term "olive oil" was $0.58 followed by $0.41, $0.38 and so on.  The higher bids are either because the vendor expects to sell multiple products (e.g. a pack of 4 bottles) or they have a higher conversion rate. A 10% conversion rate, for example, on a $50 sale could justify a $0.38 bid.  Of course, it is entirely possible that the bids also reflect a strategy of trying to establish a position in a market. Vendors may also have a preparedness to accept lower margins and perhaps generate higher volumes.  An advertiser may cap their monthly spend and pay a higher price for a limited number of links/conversions.

It is noteworthy that most of the vendors bidding high amounts are not the direct producers. One exception, on the day of writing, appears to be fourth placed Davero, bidding $0.37. Davero's range of products is, however, much wider than most of the "shopfront only" sites. Davero sells everything from sparklers to t-shirts to olive trees. As far as the olive blog could see there were no other direct producers or single item direct producers (or at least obvious ones). 

Bid numbers 25 to 30 were valued at $0.05 at the time of writing. Number 30 CyberCuina gets an ad link for olive oil on Page 5 of Yahoo's results. After Page 6, at the time of writing, the ads start to recur with the top bids having their links on Page 7 and so on.

Coming soon, how Google compares.

Old Olive Trees

Another site which will uproot, transport and transplant old olive trees. Earlier discussion on this here and here.

Anyone who would like to know more about the trade, in ancient olive trees, could  read Alex Dingwall-Main's book "The Angel Tree" on the subject. Its top left among the Olive Blog's list of Amazon books.

Lorenzo's Oil back in the news

Lorenzo's olive oil -- well at least its creator, film director Amando Manni, is back in the news. The man whose eclectic career has brought forth the film Elvis and Marilyn, also makes the possibly the most expensive oil oil in the world. The olive blog has written it up before, here. 

Bone Wax and Olive Oil

Surgeons in the USA apparently use a concoction of beeswax, olive oil and phenol to stop bleeding in bones cut during surgery, since neither cauterization nor pressure works well on them. NY Times story here.