Shea butter is the fat extracted from the nut of Africa Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). It is used in cosmetic formulations and as a substitute for Cocoa butter in chocolate industries. It is edible and used cooking fat in Africa. The saponifiable fraction of Shea butter is composed primarily of stearic and oleic acids with lesser amounts of palmitic, linoleic and arachidic acids while the uns...

Shea butter is the edible fat extracted from the nut of African Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). Consequence of having half of its fatty acids saturated, Shea butter melts at a very high temperature and will be a suitable raw material for margarine production. Margarine is a butter mimicry that is produced from vegetable oils and water. The production of margarine requires a solid fat. Hence hy...

The study compared the shea-butter production techniques used among women processors in Baruten and Ilorin-South Local Government Areas of Kwara State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to elicit information from 120 respondents through a structured interview schedule with questionnaire. Data were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The mean age of the res...

A survey among 246 people belonging to 14 ethnic groups and living in 5 different parklands in Benin revealed different practices to process shea kernels (namely boiling followed sun drying and smoking) and extract shea butter. A relation between parklands, gathering period, and sun-drying conditions was established. Moisture content and appearance of kernels were the selection criteria for use...

Four oilseeds providing cocoa-butter substitutes--shea, pentadecima, illipe, and salseed--when tested as substrates for aflatoxin production by two strains of Aspergillus parasiticus, gave varying levels of aflatoxin. Aflatoxins were found at low levels occurring naturally in moldy shea-nuts, but none of 21 commercial shea-nut samples contained greater than 20 micrograms of aflatoxin B1 per kg.

Mucosal inflammation underlies many of the specific and interrelated factors that contribute to nasal congestion shea butter is used by local healers as a treatment for inflammatory conditions including congestion. The aim this study was evaluate effects extracts Shea on diagnosed patients with Nasal

Shea butter is traditionally used in Africa for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. In this study we explored the anti-inflammatory activities of the methanolic extract of shea butter (SBE) using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced murine macrophage cell line J774. It was observed that SBE significantly reduced the levels of LPS-induced nitric oxide, Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), inter...

The quality of Shea butter is highly affected by processing factors. Hence, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of conditioning duration (CD), moisture content (MC), and die temperature (DT) of screw expeller on Shea butter quality. A combination of 33 full factorial design and response surface methodology was used for this investigation. Response variables were refractive index, a...

Background. Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is associated with 14,000 deaths every year in the US according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (SHEA-IDSA) published guidelines stratifying the severity of CDI in patients based on their clinical presentation and laborat...

Nsogning Dongmo S., Womeni H.M., Tchouanguep Mbiapo F., Linder M., Fanni J., Zarnkow M., Becker T. (2014): Cooking and drying process optimisation of shea (Butyrospermum parkii) butter extraction. Czech J. Food Sci., 32: 578–584. Cooking and drying conditions of the shea butter extraction process were determined using a response surface methodology. The influence of cooking time, temperature, a...