Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1904. 
Italian  Olive  Oil. 
219 
The  object  of  this  paper  has  been  to  call  attention  to  the  value  of 
not  only  research,  but  the  publication  of  the  results  of  original  in- 
vestigations, and  to  indicate  by  reference  to  some  recent  publications 
the  part  that  the  manufacturing  pharmacist  has  in  this  beneficent  work. 
THE  ITALIAN  OLIVE  OIL  ON  THE  AMERICAN 
MARKET. 
By  A.  Augusto. 
The  problem  of  olive  oil  in  America,  from  the  medicinal  point  of 
view,  has  to  be  considered  carefully  and  without  any  preconceived 
idea. 
Olive  oil  is  olive  oil,  nothing  else  but  the  expressed  oil  of  olives. 
Therefore,  its  purity  and  taste  depend  absolutely  upon  the  method 
employed  in  making,  refining  and  preserving  it. 
In  America  is  enrooted  the  idea  that  only  Lucca,  in  Italy,  pro- 
duces good  olive  oil,  and  consequently,  on  the  American  markets, 
any  oil  which  would  not  have  written  in  big  letters  on  the  can  or 
label  the  magic  word  Lucca,  would  not  be  considered. 
I  am  talking  to  business  men,  and  I  suppose  that  each  one  of  you 
is  proud  of  his  store  and  his  own  preparations.  Exactly  the  same 
feeling  animates  the  producers  of  olive  oil  in  Southern  Italy.  They 
are  simply  proud  of  the  fine  quality  of  their  oil,  and  they  dislike  the 
idea  of  misrepresenting  their  goods,  giving  them  the  maternity  of 
Lucca,  only  to  meet  and  overcome  the  unjust  stubbornness  of  the 
American  markets. 
The  fine  quality  of  their  olive  oil  does  not  need  any  advertisement ; 
generally  the  demands  are  greater  than  the  production,  because 
other  nations,  France  especially,  are  too  glad  to  have  it,  and  let  it 
pass  in  the  markets  of  the  world  as  their  own  production. 
To  provide  the  American  markets  with  olive  oil  there  is  left  only 
one  way :  to  pass  under  the  guns  of  the  so-called  importers  of  New 
York  and  exporters  of  Leghorn. 
Both  those  intercommercial  elements  do  their  best  to  enlarge  their 
profit,  and  consequently  the  greater  quantity  of  the  would  be  Italian 
olive  oil  is  manufactured  (the  word  adulterated  is  not  enough)  in 
New  York,  while  when  ordered  directly  from  Italy  the  oil  mer- 
chants over  there  send  here  the  lowest  degree  to  meet  the  great 
American  cry,  "cheap,  cheap." 
