Many guests of Africa sincerely admire the smooth and healthy skin of local women and their thick hair. Moreover, African women manage to preserve this wealth under the mercilessly scorching sun and the burning dry wind of the savannas. In addition to the bizarre game of genes, the centuries-old secret to the amazing condition of the skin of Africans lies in the regular use, obtained from the seeds of the shea tree. After all, the inhabitants of Africa begin to actively use it, starting from infancy.
The shea tree has many names: colo, shea butter, African tallow tree, amazing vitellaria, etc. It is found in 19 countries of the African continent. To obtain valuable oil, fruits similar to miniature avocados are harvested only from trees that have reached the age of 30 (the life span of a tree can reach 300 years). The direct source of the oil is the seeds in the stone. They are dried, boiled or fried, and then carefully crushed.
By now known the following ways getting oil:
- manual (tested for centuries);
- industrial.
The manual method is more labor intensive. Patient Africans crush the seeds in mortars, then add a little water to them and grind for a long time until a brownish paste is formed. It is then rinsed to produce foam, which is collected and boiled. The top layer of the decoction made in this way is removed and cooled. The resulting substance is oil. It is a bit like baked milk.
Modern technological improvements to the shea butter process include additional heat treatment, filtration, bleaching, and deodorization. The resulting oil has an attractive snow-white color and is devoid of a specific smell.
Benefit
Shea butter has medicinal properties.Africans have long adapted to eating nourishing shea butter. It is a worthy substitute for both creamy and familiar to Europeans. sunflower oil. Shea butter contains a variety of poly- and monounsaturated (stearic, oleic, palmitic, linolenic, linoleic). These substances serve:
- strengthening of all cell walls;
- participants in the formation of hormone-like substances;
- source of energy.
In civilized countries, shea butter is practically not eaten, but is used in some industries. Food Industry(for example, for making margarine or chocolate, shea butter is an excellent substitute for cocoa butter).
It is much more in demand in the production of various cosmetics and medicinal balms. Shea butter has become a popular component of masks, creams, lipsticks, scrubs. It absorbs beautifully into the skin and blends beautifully with other fragrant essential oils. In addition, this oil is believed to have medicinal properties. It:
- supplies the skin with essential fat-soluble vitamins (D, A, E) that maintain its elasticity and healthy condition;
- increases the formation of collagen, thereby preventing age-related changes in the skin and stretch marks - striae (they are formed during big weight or during pregnancy)
- reduces inflammation and associated tissue swelling (therefore, shea butter is used for minor injuries, sprains, bruises, myositis and arthritis as a local remedy, which is locally rubbed into the affected area);
- different antimicrobial activity;
- locally increases blood circulation (therefore, it can be a good help with massage);
- heals burns, cracks, small wounds, diaper rash;
- nourishes and moisturizes the skin, fighting its peeling and protecting it from any vicissitudes of the climate (aggressive sun, dry hot wind, frost, sea water and etc.);
- Strengthens nails, cuticles and hair.
Harm
However, it must be remembered that, like any exotic product, shea butter can easily provoke the occurrence of allergic reaction. Therefore, before using it for the first time, it is better to conduct a kind of allergic test by smearing a limited area of \u200b\u200bthe skin with shea butter.
The disadvantage of shea butter is the lack of large-scale clinical trials that meet the requirements of evidence-based medicine, which could categorically confirm it. beneficial effect on the human body.
Application features
Shea butter is used in cosmetology. Shea butter or the products in which it is a component can be bought at pharmacies or specialized natural cosmetics stores (including online stores). When purchasing, you must carefully read the composition of the product. The fact is that the method of making oil affects not only the final cost. Traditional African manual technology allows you to save more valuable substances. Such oil, as a rule, is unrefined, it has a creamy or slightly greenish color and a perceptible nutty smell. Natural (without preservatives) oil is assigned class A. Shea butter of class F is considered the lowest quality, it has only a moisturizing effect.
African lands and hot climate created a real miracle - the shea tree. Many legends go around the unique properties of this plant.
There is a claim that thanks to the oil extracted from this tree, Queen Cleopatra maintained her beauty and youth.
It is now rather difficult to test this hypothesis, but the appearance and absence of wrinkles in local women confirms the miraculous properties of such a drug.
Today there are many scientific research with this plant, worthy discoveries were obtained, which interested specialists in medicine, cosmetics, and cooking.
Shea and Karite: are they the same tree?
The amazing tree has many names: shea, caret, colo, si. Therefore, if shea is indicated, then this is the same as shea.
In African countries, this plant is considered sacred, and fruit picking is a real ritual. In Europe, for the first time, shea butter began to be used only in the middle of the 19th century.
An unusual tree grows in Nigeria, Sudan, Guinea, Uganda, Congo, Mali. Its appearance is very similar to domestic oak.
However, in order to form an accurate understanding of what it looks like African plant, it is necessary to indicate its main distinctive features:
- the height of a long-term shea tree can be from 10 to 20 m;
- wide and weighty crowns protect fragrant brown flowers from the scorching sun;
- large leaves have a glossy surface and are constantly updated, so it is impossible to see the branches naked;
- the strong bark that covers the trunks has refractory properties, thanks to which it is protected from possible fires in the hot season;
- the tree begins to bloom when it reaches the age of twenty, and the period of active yield coincides with its fiftieth anniversary and lasts at least a hundred years;
- fruits on the shea tree smoothly replace fragrant flowers, gradually reaching a dark brown color during ripening;
- the rounded shape of the fruit in diameter is not more than 4 cm;
- all the value of the plant is hidden in the seeds with elastic nuclei, which are located in the creamy pulp of the fruit. They are exposed at the moment of full ripening.
The well-known shea butter is extracted from the kernels of the fruit by grinding and pressing them. It is such a miracle product that is applicable in different areas vital activity. African residents use it in cooking, home building, cosmetics, and even as a way to light up their homes.
Take a look at the photo depicting the shea tree and its fruits, and all the above descriptions will become more understandable and visual:
Photo gallery
Areas of use for shea butter
The oil obtained from the fruits of the tree is the most valuable product. Its important advantage is its high fat content and suitability for a long time without the use of preservatives. A large number of vitamins (A, E, D) and fatty acids contained in it makes such raw materials indispensable in cosmetology.
The areas of use of shea butter or shea butter cover the following areas:
- with its content, creams and lotions are developed to soften and moisturize the skin, eliminate wrinkles and other signs of aging;
- is a component of elite shampoos and balms, as it perfectly nourishes and gives the hair a healthy shine, silkiness;
- shower gels, masks, creams for hands and feet, oil for nail plates - a small list of body care products offered by the modern cosmetic industry;
- in the food industry, margarine is prepared from the shea tree, which grows in the African outback, and is added during the preparation of sweets and chocolate;
- medicine uses miraculous oil in the treatment of rheumatism, muscle fatigue and painful sensations with stretch marks in the lower back;
- the use of this product during massage relieves fatigue, muscle tension, tightens the skin.
The raw material from the shea kernels shown in the photo is obtained by hand and industrial ways:
Photo gallery
Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. As a result of industrial high-tech oil preparation, a pure product is obtained without unnecessary odors and impurities.
When manually processing shea seeds, you can save large quantity useful components, however, it is almost impossible to achieve impeccable “purity” of raw materials. The difference between such techniques is not only their price, but also the resulting oil class: A, B, C, F. This gradation allows you to create creams with different targeted effects: from the most valuable with a therapeutic effect to ordinary moisturizers.
Shea butter is an expensive product, since the tree of the same name grows only in Africa in wild nature. Local residents do not cultivate it and do not engage in special cultivation.
The shea tree shown in the photo, no matter how hard the scientists tried, could not take root in any European or Asian country:
Photo gallery
Hot climate African continent was able to endow the tree and its fruits with unique properties that make many women more beautiful and more self-confident!
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Africa… Savannah… Hot midday heat, scorching sun, melting air and orange-red earth… Dried grasses, trees standing alone with curved branches, with yellow-brown rough bark and rare muted green foliage… Yes, in Africa, like it may seem strange, there is also life, it's just a little different, not like our European reality. Inhaling this dry air, you feel some incomprehensible associations that have got out of the deep subconscious, burning through the feeling of belonging to this motionless, languid, as if forever frozen picture African savannah.
Most of those plants that grow in Africa, you will not find anywhere else in the world. About them, or rather about him, we will talk today.
One of the greatest travelers, historians and sociologists of the Medieval East, whose works have not lost their relevance to this day, wrote about this tree like this:
"... Among the trees growing in this type of forest, one is found, the fruits of which are equally similar to plums, apples and apricots, but is not one of them. The fruits of this tree resemble an elongated cucumber in their shape, having reached ripeness, it cracks and It exposes its internal contents, the appearance of which is similar to flour.Locals use it in cooking, eat it, and also sell it in the markets.
Wild-growing young shoots germinate from seeds that look like broad beans or large nuts; they are also eaten fried, their taste is similar to the taste of roasted chickpeas. Sometimes they are crushed and used in the preparation of special round cakes, which are fried in the oil secreted by the kernels of "karti" - this is how these plum-like fruits are called. These fruits are very sweet, but can be harmful if eaten. a white man. The kernels inside the seeds grind and squeeze the oil out of them, which the people inhabiting this area use for a variety of purposes: they cook food on it, they fill lamps with it, the cakes fried on it become crispy and tasty, they anoint the body, and also , mixed with the earth, they coat the houses, using instead of lime ... "
The Arab geographer Al Umari also mentions this tree a couple of years earlier, in 1348: “There I saw a tree called kariti, the fruits of which taste like pears with their juicy core. They are eaten while they are full of juicy pulp, and the kernels, inside the fruit are ground to extract the oil they contain.This oil is whitewashed at home, filled with lamps, made into soap.When hot, this oil becomes liquid and can be used for cooking.For these purposes, it is used more often. Total".
The tree, which is so colorfully described by medieval scholars, has survived to this day and is called Shi. If I may say so, it is an African oak. Mighty, branched, reaching a height of 10-20 meters, it lives for several centuries. The tree creates a magnificent shadow, so necessary in the places of its growth. Belongs to the Sapotaceae family (and, by the way, is sole representative of this family in the savannah) and is designated as Butyrospermum parkii. Milky tree with leathery leaves. The flowering period begins at the age of twenty, and fruiting - only at the age of fifty, but it bears fruit for more than a hundred years.
What kind of outlandish and very useful tree is described by medieval scientists? This miracle is called the shea tree. Magnificent, not much different from oak in endurance, the shea tree () from the It family majestically spreads its mighty branches, reaching a height of 10-20 meters. This tree is an African long-liver, it usually lives for several centuries, covering vast areas with the canopy of its branches.
Fragrant brownish flowers that appear on the tree from December to March turn into pods. By the ripening period, they become brown and resemble small avocados. In the middle of the fruit is a kernel, a shea nut, which contains 50% fat, which is successfully squeezed out of it. locals. There is evidence that this oil was delivered in clay jugs to Queen Cleopatra from Nubia (now Sudan). An adult tree can be harvested from 15 to 20 kg per season. fruits.
For Africans, shea butter is the main source of fat for cooking, like the fruit itself, and is also used for skin care. Also, local medicine cannot do without oil, because, as it turned out, it has a lot of healing properties. It is used as a remedy for blood stagnation, for arthritis, for massage, for speedy healing wounds and burns. It also protects the skin from negative impact sun rays both for adults and for very tiny children, and African women use it very productively for stretch marks. It is an excellent remedy for muscular and rheumatic pains.
The Shea tree is not an ordinary tree for the inhabitants of the African savannah. Since ancient times, it has been revered as sacred, and many traditions and beliefs are associated with the collection of its fruits. So, for example, before harvesting from a tree, men are forbidden to touch it, and only women collect the fruits. And the collection itself is accompanied ancient ritual"Begu". With the beginning of the harvest, a holiday begins, at the end of which low-alcohol "sacred" drinks are consumed and chickens are sacrificed under ebony. During the harvest, the nuts are dried in the sun, peeled and pounded in mortars, resulting in flour, which is then boiled to a butter-like state. The secret of preparing this mass in detail is strictly guarded.
At the end of the 19th century, the shea nut also came to Europe. German chemists first conducted major experiments on the use of oil for skin care from 1932 to 1952. However, in the mid-20th century, shea butter is being replaced by cocoa butter and disappearing from European markets. But in recent times it is again with success in the cosmetology of the whole world.
The best oil, with a pleasant smell and extraordinary softness, is obtained from the fruits of a variety of a tree called Butyrospermum parkii Nilotica, which grows in the upper reaches of the Nile. This unique and priceless botanical substance, a mixture of natural organic matter, which have a powerful healing and moisturizing effect on the skin. Shea butter has an inexhaustible supply useful qualities. Unique properties make it versatile natural remedy preserving youth. Softens the skin and protects it from overdrying, accelerates the healing of superficial wounds and allergic dermatitis. It restores tired and aging skin, reduces the number of wrinkles, restores smoothness and elasticity to the skin. The oil has an active moisturizing effect, significantly increasing the hydration of the surface layers of the epidermis, prevents destructive ultraviolet solar aggression, revitalizes, gives shine and shine to dry and damaged hair. Regular use helps to keep natural beauty gives long term results.
Unfortunately, the African beauty karite (this is one of the many and most famous names tree) is an absolute endemic. It can grow and bear fruit only in continental Africa. No matter how much they tried to take root in a different climate, nothing came of it. The tree is hardly cultivated, it grows on its own and the amount of oil is very limited, because of this, some cosmetic manufacturers dilute the oil with a hexane solvent. Sad but true. But even so, for most consumers, this does not reduce the attractiveness of products based on precious oil.
Today, the Shea tree gives African residents not only food and cosmetics, but also thousands of jobs for women who traditionally process the fruits, and therefore development for the "third world countries", even the most backward. An American volunteer agency has been operating in Uganda for about 20 years. non-profit organization COVOL, which develops programs to increase food production from local plants. The programs of this organization favor the conservation and development of local flora and fauna and the development Agriculture in the Sahara region.
And yet, despite the seething of scientific and industrial passions, the unsuspecting sacred tree shi, spreads its mighty branches under the hot sun of the African sky and gives everyone who is tired and exhausted a blessed life-giving shade, saving people's lives.
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With a spreading crown and leathery leaves, growing in Mali, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Uganda. It reaches 10-20 m in height and is able to live for several centuries. It begins to bloom with fragrant brown flowers at the age of twenty and actively bears fruit at the age of fifty, maintaining a high yield for more than a hundred years.
Description
Application
Shea butter has many uses and comes in two forms: refined and unrefined. In Western countries, shea butter is mainly used for cosmetics. In Africa, it is widely used for food and medicinal purposes and is a major source of dietary fat.
Vitellaria paradoxa MS4195.JPG
Shea seeds
Vitellaria paradoxa MS 3765.jpg
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An excerpt characterizing Shi (tree)
“I love you all and have done no harm to anyone, and what have you done to me?” her lovely, pitiful, dead face spoke. In the corner of the room, something small and red grunted and squeaked in Marya Bogdanovna's white, trembling hands.Two hours later, Prince Andrei with quiet steps entered his father's office. The old man already knew everything. He stood at the very door, and as soon as it opened, the old man silently, with senile, hard hands, like a vise, clasped his son's neck and sobbed like a child.
Three days later, the little princess was buried, and, saying goodbye to her, Prince Andrei ascended the steps of the coffin. And in the coffin was the same face, albeit with eyes closed. "Oh, what have you done to me?" everything said it, and Prince Andrei felt that something had come off in his soul, that he was guilty of guilt, which he could not correct and not forget. He couldn't cry. The old man also entered and kissed her wax pen, which lay high and calm on the other, and her face said to him: “Ah, what and why did you do this to me?” And the old man turned away angrily when he saw that face.
Five days later, the young Prince Nikolai Andreevich was baptized. Mammy held the diapers with her chin, while the priest smeared the boy's wrinkled red palms and steps with a goose feather.
The godfather, the grandfather, fearing to drop, shuddering, carried the baby around a crumpled tin font and handed it over to the godmother, Princess Marya. Prince Andrei, trembling with fear lest the child be drowned, sat in another room, waiting for the end of the sacrament. He joyfully looked at the child when his nanny carried him out, and nodded his head approvingly when the nanny informed him that the wax with hairs thrown into the font did not sink, but floated along the font.
Rostov's participation in the duel between Dolokhov and Bezukhov was hushed up through the efforts of the old count, and Rostov, instead of being demoted, as he expected, was appointed adjutant to the Moscow governor general. As a result, he could not go to the village with the whole family, but remained at his new position all summer in Moscow. Dolokhov recovered, and Rostov became especially friendly with him at this time of his recovery. Dolokhov lay ill with his mother, who passionately and tenderly loved him. Old Marya Ivanovna, who fell in love with Rostov for his friendship with Fedya, often spoke to him about her son.
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