Las Brujas olive leaves are grown and prepared at altitude in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Granada, Andalucia. Our olive trees enjoy some of the cleanest air and water in Europe. We water our trees with, and even wash the leaves in spring water, which comes from the snow melt and travels through ancient aceiquias (water channels)
Amazing air
The air quality in the Sierra Nevada mountains is amongst the cleanest in Europe. The database for 2016 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals that the clean localities in the world are usually small, affluent and located far from industrial areas. Other particularly clean localities are Norman Wells, Canada, Campisábalos, Spain, and Converse County, United States. The WHO list took into account the mass concentrations of fine particles whose diameter is less than 10 micrometres (PM10). The diameter corresponds to a seventh part of a hair’s thickness. Particles of under ten micrometres travel with respiratory air into the human bronchi.
At 120 litres per year, Spain is the fourth largest per capita consumer of mineral water in the world, and its set to overtake Italy and France within the next five years (source: ANEABE). Despite the size of Spain’s home market its most famous mineral waters are little know internationally. Perhaps its Spain’s image as a dry, sun-baked land that makes it difficult to believe there are spectacular mountainous regions overflowing with outstanding mineral waters. Spain has three important mineral water regions, each with its own distinct flavours and traditions.
In stark contrast to the Italians and Germans, 95% of Spaniards prefer to drink still mineral water. The origins of this cultural difference are difficult to find but there is no doubt that Spaniards take their mineral waters very seriously indeed. The properties of individual waters are the subject of fierce debate and in a restaurant it’s not unusual to hear mineral waters discussed just like a fine wine or cognac.
The Sierra Nevada mountains has some particularly fine mineral water, the most famous being from;
Lanjarón – Named after the spring where it originates in the village of Lanjaron in the Alpujarras; it is known as “El Agua de Sierra Nevada”. The water can still be drunk free of charge from a spring in the village, where there is a balneario (spa). This is by far the best-known of Andalucian mineral waters, with an annual bottling production of 650,000 cubic metres. Lanjaron water is classified as mineralización débil and is good for diets low in sodium, and for preparing babies’ bottles and food.
” In light of the unique combination properties of oleuropein, it looks like we should “go back to the future” and continue to exploit this key dietary component of the Mediterranean diet to promote human health .”
Archaeological evidence suggests that Neolithic inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin have collected and consumed olives since the copper age (sixth millennium BC) and that during the third millennium BC, the cultivation of olive trees and oil production were well established in the region. Over the centuries, olive oil has been used as a cosmetic and pharmacological agent. Recently the beneficial effects of virgin olive oil have been ascribed to the content of polyphenols, which exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-atherogenic, hypoglycemic, hepatic-, cardiac- and neuro-protective effects Virgin olive oil is consumed unrefined, and humans absorb a large part of the ingested olive oil phenols. Oleuropein, the molecule responsible for unprocessed olives characteristic bitter taste, is the most prevalent phenolic component in olive leaves.
Olive oil and olive leaf extract are renowned natural traditional remedies used for the treatment of different conditions, including dermatitis, wound healing and treatment of burns, stomach and intestinal pain, malaria-induced fever, different infections, alopecia, rheumatic pain, otitis, rickets, distortions, sciatica, hypertension, as a diuretic, as a laxative and as an aphrodisiac.
