Economic and Health Potential of Africa’s Shea Nut
By William Eagle, VOA
Washington, DC
01 June 2009


In West Africa, a well-known local plant, the shea tree[Vitellaria paradoxa], is important as a source of nutrition for local people and an export to the West. Its fruit looks like large plums or small avocados. They yield calorie-rich oil used in preparing regional dishes and as an ingredient in the manufacturing of cosmetic.

The Multi-Purpose Tree

Oil from the smooth-skinned, egg-shaped nut of the shea fruit is a regular ingredient in cooking in the semiarid zone below the Sahara, including parts of Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda: it adds taste and texture to porridge and is used to fry fritters, griddlecakes and many other foods.

Butter made from shea fruit is used in cooking and in the making of cosmetics
Don Osborn, an expert in international development with a focus on African agriculture and resource management, says it's a main cooking oil in parts of West Africa.

"It's the only natural oil," he says,"that is a solid at room temperature. It facilitates it being traded; you can put it in a vessel but you don't have to have the same attention to jars as the other oils."....

....More