Amurca is the Latin name for the bitter-tasting, dark-colored, watery sediment that settles out of unfiltered olive oil over time. It has been known in English as "olive oil lees" [1] and recently as "olive mill waste water (OMWW)". [2] Historically, amurca was used for numerous purposes, as first described by Cato the Elder in De Agri Cultura, and later by Pliny the Elder. [3] Cato the Elder mentions its uses as a building material, pesticide, herbicide, dietary supplement for oxen and trees, food preservative, a maintenance product for leather, bronze vessel, and vases, and as a treatment for firewood in order to avoid smoke. [4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Amurca". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.