African Shea Butter as a Staple and Renewable Bioproduct

The world is really making a turn to natural and bioderived chemicals/products. This is so in order to enhance sustainability of the socioeconomic growth, conservation of the environment and human safety. Shea butter is a renewable bioproduct which is traditionally and industrially used for many medical, personal care and cosmetic applications and so on. More so, shea butter can be a great solution to skin diseases in these days of acute weather and climatic conditions because of its effectiveness and nontoxic nature. The shea tree from which the shea butter is derived, is cultivated or grown widely and naturally in West and Central Africa in the semi-arid Sahel. This tree is an important natural resource which should be seriously protected to sustain the shea butter derived from it. In addition, there is need for more participation in the shea butter business to maximize its beneficial values. The extraction of butter can be alternatively carried out by using greener solvents preferably supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) instead of hexane to enhance the quality of the butter. Thus, shea butter is essentially valuable and nontoxic bio-renewable product. The benefits and applications of shea butter cannot be over emphasised and are indispensable and inexhaustive.