Vitellaria paradoxa (shea tree) is very important in Burkina Faso. Called "golden lady" by BurkinabÃÆ' Ã… © villagers, shea tree nuts can be collected and processed by crushing and grinding to produce shea butter, which is widely used in soaps and cosmetics as moisturizers, ointments, or lotions. Shea butter is also edible and can be used to prepare meals; sometimes used in making chocolate. The bark of the tree is also used as an ingredient in traditional medicines and the shell of nuts is said to be able to repel mosquitoes and is also said to protect the existing trees.
Shea beans are important in the Burkina Faso economy. This is the country's third most important export, after cotton and livestock. In 1997, an average of one tonne of unprocessed shea nuts sold domestically for CFA700,000 (US $ 980) and abroad for CFA1,000,000 (US $ 1400). The most important shea butter production centers are in Sissili and Ziro Provinces.
Video Shea nut and butter production in Burkina Faso
Sumber
Shea butter is an oil extract from the kernel of sheanut tree shea tree Vitellaria paradoxa (syn Butyrospermum parkii, Butyrospermum paradoxum) (Sapotaceae) . It thrives in the wild without food and special attention. Every part of the original tree proved to be useful. Distribution is exclusive to sub-Saharan West Africa in savanna, especially in Burkina Faso where it provides economic food for rural women. Its distribution extends from Senegal to Ethiopia and Uganda through a nearly 1000-kilometer-long savanna stretch covering an area of ​​1 million sq km of wooded meadows (about 500 million trees) in 19 countries in the region.
The shea tree, although slow in its initial growth, has a fruitfull life span of 15-20 years. Under the indigenous agricultural system when clearing land for other agricultural activities, the Shea tree is preserved and its exclusive plantation is limited to avoid other shade plants; but weeding operations and soil fertility management adopted for other crops also facilitate tree growth. The shea fruit is cooked into a shea nut that has a kernel shea in it. The kernel is the source of shea butter extracted through several difficult processing hours, over 22 steps, to produce 1 kg of butter. In Burkina Faso, a poor country, it is the exclusive prerogative of rural women whose numbers are from 300,000 to 400,000. In the local Dioula language is known as "Si" [shi].
The fruit is shaped like a large plum and has a smooth skin with egg-shaped nuts with a kernel that produces shea butter fat.
Maps Shea nut and butter production in Burkina Faso
Products
The product is extracted as fat from the shea kernel, which has five primary fatty acids namely, palmitate, stearate, oleate, linoleic, and arachidic; stearic acid and oleic are 85-90% of fatty acids. Despite the fat, it is not extracted in a liquid state like any other oil, but is processed in the form of creamy white paste, odorless, and almost tasteless or similar to strong butter. Shea butter produced in the highlands of Mossi in Burkina Faso has a higher average percentage of stearic acid and is thus tougher than shea butter from other West African regions; This is due to the scientific conclusion that the phenolic content in the shea kernel varies from region to region.
Quality
The quality of shea and butter beans, both of which are exported in large quantities from Burkina Faso, basically depend on the post-harvest process; in this process the shea bean parboiling is done at the beginning of the season because it eliminates germination and helps in faster drying. Better quality is obtained by drying the sun from shea pea because smoking peanuts over the fire contaminates with hydrocarbons.
Usage
Shea butter extracted from shea nuts rich in vitamins and minerals, is essential for the daily life of such people used to enhance the "taste, texture, and digest of the main regional dishes" as a medium of cooking. Other activities related to shea butter that increase the income of the poor finance consist of use as a material to make cosmetics, chocolate (as a substitute for cocoa butter) pharmaceutical and soap applications. Soap manufacturers usually use it in small quantities (5-7% of the oil in the recipe) because it has the properties of leaving a small amount of oil in the soap. Other uses include as waterproofing wax, for hairdressing and for candle making. The export potential is due to the production of its industry in Europe for the separation into stearin for use with cocoa butter equivalents or improvers (CBEs/CBIs) and margarine, and oil fractions used as a low value base for margarine and as animal feed components. " in traditional African percussion instruments to increase the durability of wood (such as carved djembe shells), dry pumpkin gourd, and leather straps.
Medical use
Tree bark is used to cure diseases in skin care in children and treat minor scratches and cuts. Shea unsaponifiables is used as an anti-inflammatory treatment for arthritis and topical treatment for eczema and other skin conditions including herpes lesions. The patented "nutraceutical" product is a shea product that has been developed to lower cholesterol in humans. Its use as a basis for ointment, has been claimed to have anti-inflammatory, emollient and humectant properties.
Export
As an export commodity, shea nuts, untreated shea kernels and processed shea butter have become important, and in 2000 it was considered the third most important export of Burkina Faso; the first two export products are cotton and livestock. Exports to Europe for use in chocolate making were even better in the 1970s and 1980s, and amounted to 22,000 tons in 1990. However, restructuring economic policy changed this image and caused a decline in trade. This creates the need to review policies and result in the participation of NGOs such as the Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation for financial and technical assistance, bilateral donors, Taiwan, the Office of the United Nations Development Fund for Africa (UNIFEM), and many others.
Women's empowerment
In Burkina Faso, women traditionally play a central role in the extraction of shea butter, from the collection of shea nuts to the final process of shea butter. However, the improved economic conditions of the shea trade were not pervasive to their advantage and as a result their participation remained confined to their local markets, while men had collected large export markets to Europe for the cosmetics industry; the widespread difference in returns to local women is reflected in the fact that a ton of unprocessed shea nuts sold locally in 1997 for CFA700,000 (US $ 980) and exported at CFA1,000,000 (US $ 1400) were sold with CFA1,048,000 (US $ 2072) after being processed into shea butter; a kilo of butter is sold locally for just 60 cents for women worth two to three times more in the international market. Export revenue is driven by the use of shea butter in cosmetics (for lotions, creams, soaps and other products) by famous companies such as L'OrÃÆ'Â © al, The Body Shop and L'Occitane en Provence. This export is monitored by UNIFEM to ensure benefits flow directly to local women engaged in industry; The purchase of L'Occitane was engineered directly, through intermediaries, through Union des groupements Kiswendsida (UGK), a network of more than 100 shea groups established in Burkina Faso. As a result, shea butter exports for L'Occitane alone recorded an increase from 60 tons in 2001 to 90 tons in 2002, with a larger share of the loot reaching the women who produced it. The women are also trained in trading to produce better quality products, because the quality has declined in the past. This process of women empowerment has instilled a "sense of self-esteem among the workers and it also helps women producers earn respect from their families and the right to speak in society."
See also
- Le Beurre et l'argent du beurre , a 2007 film about shea butter production in the country
- Shea Yeleen, a social company that empowers and trains women's shea butter cooperatives
References
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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