Olive oil is obtained by first cold pressing the fruit of the botanical species Olea europaea L. belonging to the Oleaceae family.

It is a small, long-lived evergreen tree that can reach up to 15 m in height, with a wide crown and a thick, twisted trunk. Its bark is finely fissured, gray or silver in color. It has opposite leaves, 2 to 8 cm long, lanceolate with the apex slightly pointed, whole, leathery, glabrous and dark gray green on the upper side, paler and densely scaly on the underside, more or less sessile or with a petiole. very short.

The flowers are hermaphroditic, in multifloral axillary panicles, with a white corolla. The fruit, the olive, is a succulent and very oily drupe 1 to 3.5 cm long, ovoid or somewhat globose, green at first, which requires approximately half a year, in varieties dedicated to the production of oil, to acquire a black-purple color when fully ripe. Its flowering period occurs between May and July in the northern hemisphere, and between November and January in the southern hemisphere, while its fruiting period occurs between September and December in the northern hemisphere, and between March and June in the southern hemisphere. From this fruit an oil highly appreciated in gastronomy is obtained, olive oil.