1. F.D UGESEI, K. P.
BAIYERI2 & B.N. MBAH2
1 Department of Crop Production,
University of Agriculture, Makurdi,
Nigeria
2 Department of Crop Science, University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

2.  Shea fat an important product
from the shea tree.
 Has different uses:
 Illumination
 Bone setting
 Food industry
 Cosmetic industry

3. BACKGROUND
Fatty acid composition determines
end use of shea fat:
Hard butter – chocolate industry
Soft butter – cosmetic industry
Not much information about fatty
acid variation across Nigerian shea
belt.

4. Objective
 Determination of fatty acid composition
of shea fat across the Nigeria savannah.

5. MATERIALS AND METHODS
 Samples collected from 9 locations across
the savannah.
o Ilorin, Lokoja, Makurdi, Akwanga, Minna
(Southern Guinea Savannah)
o Jalingo, Kachia (Northern Guinea Savannah)
o Yola and Kano (Sudan Savannah)
 15-25 trees sampled per location.
 Fat extracted with petroleum ether.
 Fatty acid determination by gas
chromatography.

6.  Analysis of variance
 Mean separation by DNMRT

7. Table 1. Fatty acid composition of Nigerian shea butter based
on agroecological zone
Agroecolo Stearic acid Oleic acid Linoleic Palmitic
gical zone (%) (%) acid (%) acid (%)
Southern 46.3b 41.8b 6.6a 4.3a
guinea
savanna
Northern 48.2a 39.7c 6.9a 4.4a
guinea
savanna
savanna 46.1b 42.1ab 6.5a 4.6a
Means within a column followed by the same letter(s) are not
significantly different according to Duncan’s New Multiple Range
Test at P = 0.05

8. Table 2. Fatty acid composition of Nigerian shea butter based on
accession
Accessio Stearic Oleic Linoleic Palmitic
n acid (%) acid (%) acid (%) acid (%)
Lokoja 45.1d 43.4a 6.5b 4.2ab
Makurdi 47.0abc 41.3d 6.5b 3.7c
Akwanga 46.6abc 42.2bc 6.1bc 3.9bc
Minna 46.5abc 40.2e 7.2a 5.4a
Kachia 46.7abc 42.2bc 6.3b 4.1ab
Jalingo 49.7a 37.2f 7.4a 4.6a
Yola 46.2bc 42.7a 5.8c 4.6a
46.0bc 41.5bcd 7.2a 4.5a
Means within a column followed by the same letter(s) are not
significantly different according to Duncan’s New Multiple
Range Test at P = 0.05

9.  Stearic acid: 45.1 - 49.7%
 Oleic acid: 37.2 – 43.4%
 Linoleic acid: 5.8 - 7.4%
 Palmitic acid: 3.7 - 5.4%
 Stearic+ Oleic + Linoleic +
Palmitic acid: 97.1 – 99.3%

10. CONCLUSION
 Nigerian shea fat dominated by stearic
acid.
 The shea fat most suited for the food
industry.

11.  More populations could be sampled to
get more information on butter fatty
acid composition.
 Could help in easy sourcing of butter
for the different end uses.

12. KEY REFERENCE
Ugese, F. D., Baiyeri, K. P. and Mbah, B.
N. 2010. Fatty acid profile of the fat of
shea butter tree (Vitellaria paradoxa C. F.
Gaertn.) seeds obtained from the savanna
of Nigeria. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods
19: 393-398

13. THANK YOU