It is also called as cold pressed oil. In Tamil, it is popularly known as mara chekku ennai. But in the last few decades, with the arrival of refined oil, use of wood pressed oil is reduced and it was only used very rarely only in few traditional villages. Wood pressed oils are making a comeback now.
Solvents are added during the preparation that makes the oil toxic in nature and harms our health. The cold pressing method is much natural as the oil extracted will be in its natural molecular nature. The yield is less in wood pressed oil but is far healthier than the modern alternative. The old method of wooden ghani crushing was widely used.
The oil thus extracted from a wooden Ghani was called as wood pressed oil. It was also referred to as cold-pressed oil. The instrument used to extract oil was called ‘Chekku’, ‘Ghani’ or ‘Kolhu’ expressed differently and colloquially in varied Indian languages to describe cold-pressed oil machines.
