Ben oil

Ben oil is pressed from the seeds of the Moringa oleifera, known variously as the horseradish tree, ben oil tree, or drumstick tree. The oil is characterized by an unusually long shelf life[citation needed] and a mild, but pleasant taste.[citation needed] The name of the oil is derived from the presence of behenic acid. The oil’s components are:

Seeds offer a relatively high yield of 22-38% oil. Ben oil has been used for thousands of years as a perfume base, and continues to be used in that capacity today. The oil can also be used as a fuel. Burkill reports:

It burns with a clear light and without smoke. It is an excellent salad oil, and gives a good soap… It can be used for oiling machinery, and indeed has a reputation for this purpose as watch oil, but is now superseded by sperm oil.

The ancient Greeks manufactured ben oil and other herbal oils. Theophrastos, in the fourth century BC, had very strong opinions about which oils to use to make perfumes, and ben oil was firmly at the top of the list.

In Rome, around 70 AD, Pliny the Elder described the tree and its fruits under the name myrobalanum after the Greek word myron meaning “ointment”. Around the same time Dioscorides described the fruit as balanos myrepsike (roughly “acorn-shaped fruit well-suited for preparation of fragrant ointments”). He observed that “grinding the kernels, like bitter almonds, produces a liquid which is used instead of oil to prepare precious ointments.” Dioscorides’ recommendation was influential in promoting the “balanos” fruits and their oil for medicinal purposes.