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Quality characteristics of West African shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) and approaches to extend shelf-life
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Nahm, Hee Seung. Quality characteristics of West African shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) and approaches to extend shelf-life. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3W09587

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TitleQuality characteristics of West African shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) and approaches to extend shelf-life
NameNahm, Hee Seung (author); Quadro, Loredana (chair); Juliani, Rodolfo (co-chair); Tepper, Beverly (internal member); Simon, James (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2011
Other Date2011-05 (degree)
SubjectFood Science, Shea butter--Preservation
Extentxii, 121 p. : ill.
DescriptionShea butter is a versatile plant fat extracted from kernels of shea nuts, seeds of shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa). Shea butter has long been used in sub-Saharan Africa for medicinal, culinary, and other applications and serves as a cocoa butter equivalent in the manufacture of chocolate as well as an ingredient in cosmetics. Shea butter, rich in unsaturated fatty acids undergoes hydrolytic and oxidative degradation during post-harvest processing and storage, resulting in inconsistent and degraded quality and limited shelf-life. The objective of this study was to assess important quality characteristics of shea butter. Seven West African shea butters were analyzed to measure physicochemical parameters by wet chemical tests and to measure chemical composition by gas chromatographic analysis. Physical properties were consistent among samples and within the range of typical shea butter. The samples also shared similar chemical compositions, showing palmitic (3.36-4.44 % of total fatty acids), stearic (39.74-44.62 %), oleic (40.71-44.48 %), and linoleic acids (5.73-6.41 %) as the major fatty acids and α-amyrin having anti-inflammatory property (57.26-64.37 % of total sterols and triterpenes) as the major unsaponifiable matter. Moisture, insoluble impurities, free fatty acids, and peroxide values were needed to be controlled. Free fatty acid level was the most variable parameter, ranged from 1.07 to 8.56 %. Peroxide value was low enough except the one which was as high as 15.32 mEq/kg. Total unsaponifiable matters were measured lower (2.21-4.18 %) compared to the previous studies (4-11 %) but still higher than many other plant oils and fats (~2 %). This study also aimed at identifying the protective effect of selected synthetic (BHT) and natural (rosmarinic and gallic acids) antioxidants on shea butter from oxidation. Peroxide value, conjugated dienes, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and the amount of major fatty acids were measured as oxidative parameters at 0, 72 and 144 hours while the control and samples with 0.02 % of antioxidants were stored at 90 °C with air flow. The antioxidants were significantly effective in protecting shea butter from oxidation and no significant difference in the effect of synthetic and natural antioxidants was found.
NoteM.S.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Hee Seung Nahm
Genretheses, ETD graduate
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3W09587
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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