Origin
Shea butter has a yellow color and is a fat that is extracted from the Africa Shea tree’s nut. It has a wide range of use in the cosmetic world,
its main use being moisturizer, lotion or cream. The butter is edible and some people in Africa use it as food ingredient in some of their food. At times, the chocolate industry makes use of this oil as a substitute commodity for cocoa butter; in this case the taste slightly changes.
Use of Shea butter in dermatology
Shea butter is fully extracted and processed in Africa; this is among the natural moisturizers that are in existence these days. For quite a long time now, people have been relying on the Shea oil for the cure of different undesirable conditions in the scalp, lips, heels, skin and hair. Many people have found the benefits of using the shea butter oil to treat these conditions.
Other uses of Shea oil
Shea butter has a wide range of applications or uses apart form the use in dermatology. The fruit also finds its way in the field of cosmetics, candle making, production of soaps and detergents, in confectioneries and even in pharmaceuticals. The non-refined or sometimes called raw Shea butter contains no chemicals or preservatives.
Shea butter by composition and properties
This is a natural fat which is made up of several nonsaponifiable compounds and other compounds that cannot get fully converted into soap even when treated with an alkali. In a deeper and detailed view, the following fatty acids make up the butter: the most abundant one is oleic acid which is 40-60% by composition, stearic acid which is 20-50% by composition, linoleic acid which is 3-11% by composition, palmitic acid which is 2-9% by composition, linoleic acid and arachidic acid which are less than 1% by composition.
Uses
In the manufacture of Shea butter soap.
The main use of Shea oil is in the cosmetic industry where it is used in the manufacture of a wide range of cosmetics which includes making high quality hair conditioners used in the treatment of dry, brittle hair, and in the manufacture of lip gloss moisturizer creams. The oil is also an important element in the manufacture of soap due to its moisturizing effect.
Other uses of the Shea oil
Some people use the oil to make waterproof wax, in hairdressing, in the manufacture of candles and as medicine
.
Classification
There have been suggestion that the Shea butter should be categorized into five grades namely: the raw one extracted using water and in non refined state, the fairly pure Shea butter, the Shea butter that has been purified using solvents such as hexane and any other purifying agents, the lowest uncontaminated grade and the lowest uncontaminated grade. The pure Shea oil has a color ranging from cream just like that of butter to grayish yellow; it has a nut like aroma.
