Hi guys, as usual, it's time for another short trip into the medical world.

Today we are going to be talking about a should I say crop, which is the SHEA BUTTER
A crop that has been undervalued for years, mostly because we have been depending on chemically produced products.

The word SHEA gotten from s'i (the trees name in Bahama in Mali where it is mostly gotten from)

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The Shea butter is a fat gotten from the nut of the African shea tree with a botanical name (Vitellaria paradoxa).
There are various types of shea butter:

Raw (yellow in colour)
Unrefined
Refined and
Ultra-Refined (ivory or white in colour)

It is triglyceride derived mostly from stearic (a 18 carbon fatty acid) and oleic acid. Widely used as cosmetics and moisturizer and lotion. Don't forget it's also edible and used in preparation of food in some African countries. Even some chocolate industries use it as substitutes for cocoa butter, but it has a different taste.

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HISTORY

As early as Cloepatra's Egypt, there have been talks of caravans having clay jars of valuable shea butter for cosmetics purpose. Even the funeral beds of ancient kings were carved with the wood of shea trees.
The history of this special butter canbe traced back to early Egypt where it was and will continue be used as protection of skin and hair from African deserts and savannah climates.

COMPOSITION & PROPERTIES

Shea butter is a complex fat that contains the following fatty acids;
oleic acid (40-70 percent), stearic acid (20-40 percent), linoleic acid (3-11 percent), palmitic acid (2-9 percent), linolenic acid (<1 percent), arachidic acid (<1 percent)

It melts at body temperature, absorbs fast into the skin and has good water binding properties.

USES

This butter has a lot of uses including;

Shea butter soap.
It is used in the making of soaps, but in small quantity because of the amount of unsaponifiables it has
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Natural moisturizer for skin
Due to the amount of fatty acids in shea butter, it is a good moisturizing agent for the skin, a natural lotion, and like I said earlier, it absorbs fast into the skin at normal body temperature.

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Food
It is used as cooking oil in some African countries and like I said earlier, it is used as substitute for cocoa butter.
Below is a list of the Nutritional value of shea butter

Energy 884 cal
Fat (saturated fat 47 g, polyunsaturated fat 4 g, monounsaturated fat 44 g)
F. Acids
Octanoid acid 0.2g, Decanoic acid 0.2g, Dodecanoic acid 1.3g, Tetradecanoic acid 0.1g, Hexadecanoicacid 4.4g, Octadecanoic acid 38.8g, Palmitoleic acid 0.1g,Omega 9 F. Acid 43.4g, and Phytoerols.

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It could also be an ingredient used in organic broth.

Stretch mark remover
Hurray, the horror most pregnant women face after pregnancy which is stretch mark that is said to have no cure has been scientifically proven it can be cured completely with the use of shea butter.

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Effective treatment of Acne
Am sure we are all thinking " shea butter!!!! cure acne, if not add", well am telling you it does, the oil in shea butter does not stay in pores of the skin, it gets absorbed, and does its work, making sure there is no oil left in the pores of the skin.

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Eye bag remover
Most times when we do not get enough sleep, or when we are stressed out, bags appear under our eyes, and they can be very embarrassing and annoying, when we need to attend a meeting the next morning. Well no more, because all you have to do is rub shea butter under your eyes and observe the magic.

No more dark spots
Alas, the solution to dark spots that makes one feel inferior is here and is used just by rubbing it on the affected area. Shea butter contains vitamin A and vitamin E that helps in removal of dark spots.

Itchy scalp remover
Itchy scalp is caused by use of bad shampoo and the remnants in the hair. Adding shea butter to the scalp removes the bad
shampoo (all of it) and makes it smooth.

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Treatment of Dandruff
Dandruff is caused by excessive oil in the scalp that invites the bacterias. And it can be treated by using shea butter and it works by removing the excess oil and replacing it with the natural oil, leaving the hair dandruff free.

Protection from Ultra- violet rayss
Am sure we know that it's not only our skin that needs protection also our hair. Application of shea butter to our hair gives us one more layer of protection from the deadly rays of the sun.

Reduction of the effect of chlorine after swimming in a pool
Am sure we are also annoyed to find our hair stiff and our body wrinkled after having a good time in the pool. Well applying shea butter reduces it.