Oleic Acid

Olive oil, the prized trading commodity of Ancient Greece, has played a significant role in shaping human history.  Olive oil had brought a great wealth to Ancient Greece, as it was essentially the sole object of export by its people, which allowed it to expand its reach and influence and ultimately foster the roots of modern-day Western civilization.  The political culture of classical Greece- its concepts of democracy and self-government, philosophy, logic and rational inquiry, scientific and mathematical investigation, education, and the arts- has been reflected in the many civilized Western cultures of today.  However, it may have also been olive oil that led to its ultimate fall.  Because olive oil was so important to the Greeks, olive cultivation took precedence to the major agricultural products needed for an empire to sustain itself.  Because of this, along with internal strife, the collapse of religious traditions, and outside attacks, olive oil is associated with the decline of classical Greece, as well as its upbringing.

Oleic acid, the main component of olive oil, is an eighteen carbon, monounsaturated fatty acid, that has also had an enormous affect on the development of human hygiene.  After the collapse of the Greek and Roman empires, the use of olive oil as a body wash was largely abandoned, and would not be revived until the eighth century in France and Spain, where new soaps began to be manufactured.  These new castile soaps as they were called, contained olive oil, and therefore oleic acid.  Soap is a jumble of fatty acids that form a micelle around a grease particle, and are then washed away by water.  The fatty acids form this micelle because the tails of these molecules are repelled by water and attracted to other nonpolar compounds, such as grease, and the heads of the acids remain on the outside, as they are polar and are therefore attracted to the surrounding water.  The revival of the art of soap-making has brought modern society to the point it is at today, in which we cleanse our bodies daily and maintain other standards of personal hygiene.  The oleic acid molecule has clearly had a great affect on human history, having helped shape the political culture of Western civilization, and though perhaps not as dramatic but none-the-less important, introduced the use of body wash.