IN PICTURES: Africa's liquid gold that grows on trees. At $300/litre - Worlds Most Expensive

At $300 per litre, Argan oil is the world's most expensive edible oil.

The oil, which has been a mainstay for the Berber people of southwestern Morocco for centuries, was propelled out of obscurity in the 1990s by findings about its culinary, cosmetic, and even medicinal virtues. Argan oil contains essential fatty acids, Omega 6, linoleic acid, and Vitamin E.  This make the oil extracted from this endemic Moroccan tree very effective in treating an assortment of skin ailments such as acne, pimples, wrinkles, and eczema.

Despite it's value, the process of extracting the oil, whose trees are endemic to Morocco, is one of the simplest and least mechanised.

Here we document the incredibly tasking process behind the production of this liquid gold...

Nestled between hills off a small road in Tahanaout, at the foot of the Atlas mountains, is a small village which is known for producing one of the world's most valuable commodities

Here nuts are harvested from argan trees to make argan oil. At $300 per litre or more, this oil is currently the world's most expensive edible oil

                              Women working in cooperatives do most of the work

When the nuts are picked they look like large, green olives and are left to dry

Once the nuts are dry, the women use stones to break apart the dried flesh of the nut, and then break away the husk

This leaves a smooth, shiny nut behind

The process is extremely hard and time consuming. It takes approximately 15 hours to produce just 1 litre of argan oil

The nuts are pushed by hand through this small stone mill to make a paste

To make a litre of oil about 40kg of nuts are needed

Attempts to mechanise this process have been unsuccessful, so workers still do it by hand

They will then squeeze the paste by hand to extract the oil leaving this residue behind. Nothing is wasted. Pulp from inside the husks is fed to livestock, while the nut is either made into oils, soaps, and lotions for hair and skin, it's also edible when roasted

The majority of the oil goes into cosmetic oil and only a small proportion is made into culinary oil

Credit: mgafrica.com

[Photographs by Trisala Bid]