Western countries are just beginning to recognise the considerable health and beauty benefits of shea butter, something Africans have known for thousands of years. Shea nut, known as Kandayi, Osisi and Emi among the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba people of Nigeria, respectively, is obtained from the fruit of shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), which exists in the wild and grows in an uncultivated state in most parts of Africa.

Shea fruit is made up of a green epicarp, a fleshy pulp and a relatively hard shell, which encloses the shea kernel. The kernel contains about 60 per cent edible fat (shea butter) and the residual product, from which the butter is extracted (shea cake), is an excellent ingredient for livestock feed production.

Shea butter is good as table oil because of its high nutritive value. It is widely used locally for curing leprosy and other ailments. According to the American Shea Butter Institute, 100 per cent pure natural shea butter is an all-natural vitamin A cream shown to be a good moisturiser, with exceptional skin healing properties. Quality characteristics of skin conditions where 100 per cent  shea butter has been proved to be effective are dry skin, skin rash, skin peeling after tanning, blemishes and wrinkles, itching skin, chapped lips, sunburn, small skin wounds, skin cracks and tough or rough skin (on feet).

Others are stretch mark prevention during pregnancy, insect bites, healthy skin, muscle fatigue, aches and tension, skin allergies such as poison ivy or poison oaks, pimples, rashes and skin damage from heat.

Experts say shea butter tree is also valued medicinally for soothing arthritic pains, reducing swelling, treating skin problems, and as an antiseptic for the treatment of wounds.

A field study carried out by Andrew A. Erakhrumen from the Department of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, on uses of different trees, reported that shea butter oil in South Western part of Nigeria is used for treatment of bees and wasp sting, diarrhoea, anti-venom and anti-poison, for rheumatism, waist pain, yellow fever and rheumatic pains.

The waste water from shea butter production is used as an insecticide; shea butter is also used to treat inflammation, rashes in children, dermatitis, sunburn, chapping, irritation, ulcers and as a rub for rheumatism. Its leaves are used for the treatment of fracture, conjunctivitis, trachoma, convulsion, stomach-ache and headache.

Shea butter tree bark is said to be used for the treatment of dysentery, haemorrhoids, schistosomiasis, coughs, jaundice, nausea, diarrhoea, constipation, headaches, fever, and as an eye lotion. Its roots are used for the treatment of female sterility, gastritis, liver cancer, ascites, sores, jaundice, diarrhea and stomach-ache, as well as chewing stick.

Among the most popular essential oils used for medicinal uses in Northern Nigeria are oils extracted from the seeds of mahogany oil, castor seed oil, shea butter oil, neem seed oil and sesame oil. Shea butter oil is made from the seeds of shea butter tree and it is mostly kept by traditional midwives and used as an antiseptic to treat the umbilical cord. It is also applied to wounds and cuts, particularly those inflicted by sharp objects such as in farming (anti-tetanus). It is also used by bone setters to treat fractures and arthritis of the bone.

Writing on the potential benefits of shea butter to prevent aging of the skin, in the 2005 edition of European Journal of Scientific Research, a group of scientists, namely Odukoya, OA, Jenkins, OM, Ilori, OO, Sofidiya, OM from the Faculty of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, stated that shea butter works better in protecting the skin from dryness by moisturizing and softening the skin than other products such as castor oil and olive oil.  

According to them, rubbing such natural skin moisturizers like shea butter, coconut oil and palm kernel oil could be of use as preventive therapy for wrinkle, sun burn and UV-induced cancer.

According to them, shea butter is incorporated in skin products because the natural latex contained in it prevents certain sun allergies, supports cell regeneration and blood circulation, thus encouraging the healing process from scars.

A proximate analysis of shea-butter leaves found it to be a good source of iron, magnesium and potassium as well as three important amino acids (valine, phenylalanine and leucine) essential for growth.

According to their finding in the 2009 edition of African Journal of Biotechnology,   Taiwo A. Abidemi from the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State in collaboration with Oyedepo J. Adebayo, Oluwadare Idowu and M. O. Agbotoba, stated that its protein content makes it nutritionally a good plant protein, which can supplement animal protein, thereby alleviating kwashiorkor and marasmus. 

According to them: “By inference, shea butter leaves will supplement other sources of dietary iron in man if eaten, and since its magnesium content is very high, it implies that adequate consumption of the leaf would satisfy the recommended daily allowance when eaten in conjunction with other sources of dietary magnesium.”

A preliminary assessment of the stem bark extracts of shea butter against enteric infections such as diarrhea, dysentery, worm infestation and other gastrointestinal tract infections, skin diseases and wound infections also found that there was a scientific basis for the use of this plant in traditional medicine for these diseases.

The 2008 study was published in the African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, by El-Mahmood, A. M, Doughari, J. H. and Ladan, N from the Department of Microbiology, School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State.

The seed of shea butter relieves blocked nostrils. This traditional method of relieving nasal congestion, a research in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology tried out in some participants suffering from rhinitis with moderate to severe nasal congestion. They were divided into the test group, which received shea butter, the control group, which was treated with xylometazoline and the ‘placebo’ group which received white petroleum jelly B.P.

The author wrote: “The results showed that nasal congestion was relieved more satisfactorily in the test group than in the other two groups.  It is concluded that shea butter may prove more efficacious in nasal congestion than conventional nasal drops.”

The usefulness of shea butter in the management of sinusitis and relief of nasal congestion has been attributed to its hydrating properties, which help in relaxing the tension in the face skin, thus easing respiration. However, there is a warning; shea butter is not recommended for people with nut or latex allergies.