What is the chemical content from inside the pit of an olive?

Answer 1

A reader asks: I am looking for information concerning the chemical composition of the olive pit.

Olive Oil News: Olive pits are equivalent to a hard wood with cellulose and lignin predominating, the two most abundant organic materials on Earth.

Some producers make a niche oil using olives which have had the pit removed, claiming that the pit contains bitter or undesirable flavor components. These oils have not been shown to be superior to conventionally produced oils in international taste competitions.

You may hear about "olive pit oil" which is oil recovered from the "pomace" or waste from olive oil pressing. The oil does not actually come from the pit but the residual flesh found with the pit fragments.

High in thermal energy, olive pits are sometimes burned to generate heat to dry out the pomace for more practical disposal. California Olive Ranch in Oroville California uses such as system to almost eliminate the environmental impact of pomace disposal.