Edible oil india

History

Ancient India had done a lot of research on edible oils and their extraction and usage. We can find references to various oils and their health benefits in Ayurveda. Indians believed in seed oils extracted from good quality seeds without increasing the temperature while extracting the oil. Groundnut, Coconut, Sesame, Mustard, Kalaunji, Flaxseed, Almond, Neem, Safflower, Sunflower, Nirgudi, Walnut, Cashew are some of the seeds from which ancient Indians used to extract oil. Oil churners were made either from wood or stone. The reason behind making churners from these materials is that they dissipate the heat and maintain the temperature of the oil during the extraction process.

Churning Process

Churners were operated either by Bullock or human beings in earlier days. In modern times, motorized churners are available. Ayurveda mentions a specific type of wood for making the churner. Babul, Tamarind, Mango are some of the trees that can be used to build a churner. Other trees are forbidden. The reason for suggesting specific trees was that other trees can insert their own flavour, taste, and colour into the oil. After the process, oil used to be collected and cakes were used as feed for cattle. Oil percentage is low from this process compared to screw expeller or solvent extractor, but the quality of oil is best.

Oil Cakes

After taking out the oil, oil cakes were used to make feed for cattle. It was believed that this feed is good for their health.

Cold Pressed Oil extraction today

Even today, mechanized wooden churners are used in places in India to extract oil. IndicWisdom has a similar wooden churner in Mumbai if you wish to see it yourself.

This article "Edible oil india" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---