{"title":"Shea Butter: A Comprehensive Review of Its Compositions, Processing, Applications, and Challenges","authors":"Hong Zhang, Yingxua Zhou, Xuebing Xu","doi":"10.1002/aocs.70065","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Shea butter, derived from the kernels of <i>Vitellaria paradoxa</i>, is a multifunctional fat widely used in food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. This review provides a comprehensive overview of its physicochemical properties, biological activities, and the current state of processing technologies. The paper begins by highlighting the unique composition of shea butter, including its high content of stearic and oleic acids, along with bioactive unsaponifiable matter such as tocopherols, sterols, and triterpenes. Various extraction and refining methods, ranging from traditional artisanal approaches to advanced mechanical, solvent, and enzymatic techniques, are critically evaluated for their impact on yield, quality, and sustainability. Applications across different sectors are examined, with emphasis on functional, nutritional, and therapeutic attributes. Special attention is given to the roles and challenges associated with unsaponifiable components, which complicate fractionation and stability but offer significant bioactivity. The review also identifies major production and quality control challenges, particularly in achieving product standardization and improving local processing efficiency. Finally, future perspectives are proposed, focusing on technological innovation, value addition, and socio-economic development. This work underscores the importance of integrated approaches to optimize shea butter production and utilization across industries.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":17182,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society","volume":"103 5","pages":"399-422"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2026-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aocs.70065","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/2/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Shea butter, derived from the kernels of Vitellaria paradoxa, is a multifunctional fat widely used in food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. This review provides a comprehensive overview of its physicochemical properties, biological activities, and the current state of processing technologies. The paper begins by highlighting the unique composition of shea butter, including its high content of stearic and oleic acids, along with bioactive unsaponifiable matter such as tocopherols, sterols, and triterpenes. Various extraction and refining methods, ranging from traditional artisanal approaches to advanced mechanical, solvent, and enzymatic techniques, are critically evaluated for their impact on yield, quality, and sustainability. Applications across different sectors are examined, with emphasis on functional, nutritional, and therapeutic attributes. Special attention is given to the roles and challenges associated with unsaponifiable components, which complicate fractionation and stability but offer significant bioactivity. The review also identifies major production and quality control challenges, particularly in achieving product standardization and improving local processing efficiency. Finally, future perspectives are proposed, focusing on technological innovation, value addition, and socio-economic development. This work underscores the importance of integrated approaches to optimize shea butter production and utilization across industries.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society (JAOCS) is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes significant original scientific research and technological advances on fats, oils, oilseed proteins, and related materials through original research articles, invited reviews, short communications, and letters to the editor. We seek to publish reports that will significantly advance scientific understanding through hypothesis driven research, innovations, and important new information pertaining to analysis, properties, processing, products, and applications of these food and industrial resources. Breakthroughs in food science and technology, biotechnology (including genomics, biomechanisms, biocatalysis and bioprocessing), and industrial products and applications are particularly appropriate.
JAOCS also considers reports on the lipid composition of new, unique, and traditional sources of lipids that definitively address a research hypothesis and advances scientific understanding. However, the genus and species of the source must be verified by appropriate means of classification. In addition, the GPS location of the harvested materials and seed or vegetative samples should be deposited in an accredited germplasm repository. Compositional data suitable for Original Research Articles must embody replicated estimate of tissue constituents, such as oil, protein, carbohydrate, fatty acid, phospholipid, tocopherol, sterol, and carotenoid compositions. Other components unique to the specific plant or animal source may be reported. Furthermore, lipid composition papers should incorporate elements of yeartoyear, environmental, and/ or cultivar variations through use of appropriate statistical analyses.
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