Chulli is the wild apricot of Himachal Pradesh, Prunus armeniaca, growing untended across the higher districts. Its kernels are bitter and inedible, but pressed cold they yield an oil that Pahadi households have used for generations. The category holds a Geographical Indication as Himachali Chulli Oil.
What is Chulli?
The wild apricot. Not a variety of the orchard fruit, but the same species growing without anyone planting it, in ground nobody cultivates.
The name shifts with the language rather than the district. Across Himachal it is Chulli,over the passes in Ladakh it becomes Chult, in Kashmir Gurdalu, and in Kumaon Chuaru or Chola. Kinnaur is where the name Chulli sticks hardest, which is why the oil is identified with that district even though the tree grows across seven.
Trees have been recorded fruiting at 11,000 feet at Poh in Spiti, where winter temperatures drop to around minus 35 degrees.
Nobody irrigates them and nobody feeds them. Locally they are described as divine trees, on the reasoning that they grow entirely under the care of nature rather than anyone's labour. Whether or not you find that romantic, it is accurate as a description of the input cost.
The fruit ripens between May and July and spoils quickly, which is why it was never a commercial crop in the way the sweet apricot became.
How is Chulli oil made?
The fruit is collected, the flesh removed, and the pits cracked to get at the kernel inside. Those kernels go out into the sun for two or three days to dry.
Then they are cold-pressed, traditionally in village chakkis, without heat. It is slow work and the yield is small, which is most of what determines the price. A household making oil for its own use would spend days on a quantity that looks like very little at the end of it.
The pressing has to be cold for a practical reason as well as a traditional one. Heat degrades the oil and shortens how long it keeps, and there is no refrigeration in most of the places this is made.
This is a household practice more than an industry. In much of upper Himachal, families still press their own.
Is Chulli the same as the apricots you eat?
No. Sweet apricots are cultivated, grown in orchards, and eaten fresh or sun-dried. Chulli is wild, and its fruit is small, sour and not much good for eating. What Chulli is grown for, in effect, is the kernel.
The kernels differ too. Sweet apricot kernels are mild. Chulli kernels are bitter, and that bitterness comes from amygdalin, a compound that releases cyanide when broken down. That is why nobody in these hills eats wild apricot kernels raw, and why the traditional use is to press them rather than to chew them.
The oil is a separate matter and is not affected. Amygdalin is water-soluble, so it stays behind in the pressed meal rather than passing into the oil. This is the reason a tradition that treats the kernel as inedible has no difficulty at all with the oil.
Does Chulli oil have a GI tag?
Himachali Chulli Oil is registered under the Geographical Indications of Goods Act, 1999, which protects the name against oil produced elsewhere and sold under it.
Worth understanding what that means and does not mean. A GI protects a name tied to a place. It does not certify any particular bottle, and only the registered proprietor and formally registered authorised users may put the tag on a product. So a bottle marked GI is making a specific legal claim, and a great many bottles marked GI are not entitled to.
What we can tell you without ambiguity is where ours comes from. Our Wild Apricot Oil is pressed from wild Chulli kernels collected in the upper reaches of Kinnaur, by the families who gather the fruit. That is a smaller claim than a tag on a label, and it is one we can answer questions about.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chulli oil?
Chulli oil is pressed from the kernels of the wild apricot, Prunus armeniaca, which grows untended across the higher districts of Himachal Pradesh. The kernels are sun-dried for two to three days and cold-pressed without heat, traditionally in village chakkis. It has long been used in Pahadi households on skin and hair.
Is Chulli the same as a normal apricot?
No. Chulli is the wild apricot, uncultivated, with small sour fruit and bitter kernels. Eating apricots are cultivated orchard fruit with mild kernels. The wild tree is valued for its kernel oil rather than its fruit, and the two are entirely different products.
Can you eat wild apricot kernels?
Not raw. Bitter Chulli kernels contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when broken down, which is why traditional practice across these hills is to press them for oil rather than eat them. This applies to the kernel itself, not to the pressed oil.
If the kernels contain cyanide, is Chulli oil safe?
Yes. Amygdalin is water-soluble and remains in the pressed meal rather than transferring into the oil, which is why Himachali households have used Chulli oil on skin and hair for generations without concern. The compound is a reason not to chew the kernels, not a reason to avoid the oil.
Where does Himflavours source its Chulli oil?
From the upper reaches of Kinnaur, where wild apricot trees grow without cultivation, and it is pressed by the families who collect the fruit. We buy directly rather than through traders, so each batch can be traced to the people who gathered and pressed it.
By Vineet Sood
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