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Extra Long Shelf Life Shea Nut Butter

Just below the Great Sahara Desert lies a broad swath of the African Savannah lands. Outside of the rainy season, this is one of the harshest, driest, dustiest places on earth. Brutal sun, wind, and the Hamatan dust take a terrible toll to exposed skin.

Women of this region long ago learned how to extract an oil from the kernel of the nut of the Shea tree. Because it is solid at room temperature this became know as shea butter. While most people use shea butter as a valuable food oil, a few women and men began rubbing it into their skin at night.

In January and February of 2004, my partner Sandy Lincoln and I did a survey of shea butter extraction techniques and marketing methods in Upper Guinea for USAID. We met, and talked with hundreds of people. Every once in a while I would spot a person who looked younger than everyone else. It was hard to place their age. I would single out these people and asked if they rubbed shea butter into their skin. They would often hesitate and blush - it was their secret! Often, even their husbands did not know, lest they be accused of wasting food.

Fresh shea butter made by traditional methods is full of all kinds of botanical goodies like Vitamin A compounds, allantoin (found in aloe and comfrey), and circuminoids (anti-cancer compounds found in cumin) and catechins. Trouble is, it degrades rapidly and quickly loses potency. Most traditional shea butter we saw was going rancid within 6 months, and completely shot out before a year was up. Occasionally however, we would find some still fresh after a year or even two. What was up with this?

During our visits to Africa, we hooked up with Dr. Peter Lovett, a respected authority on shea. He had developed a method of extending the shelf life of shea butter through careful, quality control methods suitable for use in the rural villages. We worked with Peter, testing a solar drier concept he developed a year later.

After much trial and tribulations, not to mention innumerable delays, we have established a reliable supply chain from Northern Ghana. This is completely natural, unrefined "raw" shea butter. It is extremely organic, but does not carry NOP organic certification. This shea butter was produced under the direct supervision of Dr. Lovett PhD., and was processed in the villages in a manner that gives the shea butter extra long shelf life. We do not know the exact shelf life of the product, but we do expect it to be at least double that of market quality shea.

Please remember that rare individuals with both a Type B Latex allergy and a Nut allergy can react to shea butter. We like to label our stuff Shea Nut Butter so people understand that this does come from a nut.

$3.50 Handling charge per order - Prices do not include shipping

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COMING SOON: Personal Size Shea Butter (We are working on the packaging).
ALSO COMING SOON: Shea Nut Butter Shower Gel.

Toll Free: 1-866-SOAP-4U2
(1-866-762-7482)

More on our African adventures at:

Making Shea Butter in Ghana and Guinea
West Africa - Issues and Challenges
What to Bring When Traveling in Developing Regions
Essential Oil Distillation Unit Manual
Training Manual for a Village Soap-Making Operation
In-depth Information on Making Potash
Pictoral Description of the Dagomba Method of Shea Extraction (PDF)
Building a Solar Shea Nut Drier in Ghana
Improving the Shelf life of Shea Butter in West Africa