Using olive oil lees-amurca

[Magnoliarose]

Hi folk, does anyone have experience using olive oil lees? Is the sap. Value the same as olive oil? Any info much appreciated

 

[DeeAnna]

Wikipedia tells me that olive oil lees is a watery, bitter sediment that settles out from olive oil during storage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amurca

Amurca apparently contains only a tiny amount of olive oil -- less than 0.5 g oil per kilogram according to info presented in one study. That means the actual saponification value will be almost zero. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348276/

I suspect amurca will react with alkali due to the impurities present in this liquid, but the result won't be much if any actual soap.

Amurca isn't something that's sold commercially (except maybe locally where olive oil is produced?), so it's likely that few soap makers even know about it.

Not sure I'd be too keen to try it in soap, to be honest. What do you know about amurca that makes you think it would be a good addition to soap?

I suspect you're on your own to guess the amount of alkali it will react with.

 

[Magnoliarose]

Wikipedia tells me that olive oil lees is a watery, bitter sediment that settles out from olive oil during storage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amurca

Amurca apparently contains only a tiny amount of olive oil -- less than 0.5 g oil per kilogram according to info presented in one study. That means the actual saponification value will be almost zero. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348276/

I suspect amurca will react with alkali due to the impurities present in this liquid, but the result won't be much if any actual soap.

Amurca isn't something that's sold commercially (except maybe locally where olive oil is produced?), so it's likely that few soap makers even know about it.

Not sure I'd be too keen to try it in soap, to be honest. What do you know about amurca that makes you think it would be a good addition to soap?

I suspect you're on your own to guess the amount of alkali it will react with.

Thankyou. I knew it was low on oil, but has been used traditionally for soap, although of what quality is a guess. I have been offered some for really cheap so I thought i would give it a try. I can make single soap size batches and do some test runs on it. Just another experiment. I also wondered if the actual oil could be filtered off and if that was what was used rather than the entire lees. It is a topic that is reallly difficult to find info on. But thanks so much for the input
Also, the lady who has it says that it is the leftover oil with tiny bits of vegetation through it. They are a hobby farm so their extraction equipment may not refine as well as commercial industry. The sites you mentiined are amoung the few- aside from dictionary definitions (which nearly all mention it as used in soap making)- that have anything on it. Iʻm guessing that traditional pressingbmethods leave tha amuca with a much higher oil ratio. In which case i would factor the liquid into the liquid calculations for the batch. Āiʻm also interested in trying the ʻwaterʻ part on its own. So it will be fun to try, wonʻt be till after May when they finish pressing. Iʻll let you all know further down the track.