Talk:Shea butter

Biased info in "Types" section

the section that describes the difference between "Certified Organic Unrefined and the Refined Version" of shea butter almost sounds like an ad, and sure enough- it's only reference is purelyshea.com, a site that sells "Certified Organic Unrefined" Shea butter. Obviously this one single source is not too viable. If it's not cleaned up soon, should I just go ahead and delete it? --Corgana 11:54, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Definately. If it's an ad, you should go ahead and delete it right away. Since you have this noted for six months now, I'll go ahead and remove it. Blockhouse (talk) 06:40, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

I think it would have been a good idea for the writer to avail himself wholeheartedly of the spell / grammar check.24.3.188.105 (talk) 01:32, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Karite' is an African word not French from Burkina Faso which means "life" 67.163.216.22 (talk) 00:19, 2 February 2011 (UTC)Maisha

Supply and "Healing Properties"

Scarcity? My understanding is that shea nut trees are very common and numerous and high-yielding throughout West Africa. Any citations for the scarcity claim?

[ Copied this particular item to Talk:Butyrospermum parkii --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 22:36, 21 December 2009 (UTC) ]

And the healing properties thing? I would think that she butter's main activity come from it being an oil-based gel, working much like any other moisteurizer such as petroleum jelly - keeping the skin moist by keeping water from evaporating off of it into the air. It might be possible that she butter naturally has small amounts of compounds that my be emulsifiers or surfectants or sterols or something else that might help - but do you really have any sources that show this? Please cite sources.

In the referenced article used to validate Shea butter's claimed anti-inflammatory properties @ PubMed (PMID:15779163),Shea butter is described as an "excepient" - an inactive medicinal base used to carry the active ingredient, which in this case is in actuality the extract of Khaya senegalensis. However, another PubMed article (PMID:14619690) claims that Shea butter released aureomyicn at a faster rate and more easily than other tested excepients (petroleum jelly and lanolin oil), and this is relevant to the Shea butter article as PMID:15779163 is to the article on Khaya senegalensis.70.156.31.116 (talk) 20:33, 2 January 2008 (UTC)James D.

"Shea butter is comparably richer than other emollients" Meaning? Richer in what? --Hugh7 (talk) 06:11, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Adding external links

I attempting to include some information on shea butter but my information was deleted. why? I am not advertising, my information was organized just like the other external links.Meaning i was linking to a page within our website, just like other links. this is very frustrating, this is the message I receive:

'"We invite everyone to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, the external links you added to the page Shea do not comply with our guidelines for external links. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links; nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. Versageek 01:36, 5 May 2007 (UTC)"'

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Dieselboy1717"

Hi - the page you linked to ([1]) is part of a commercial web site, selling various Shea products. The page itself even has a shopping cart and links to your products. Links to your commerical websites are not allowed:

from Wikipedia:External links:

Main pages: Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Spam

Due to the rising profile of Wikipedia and the amount of extra traffic it can bring a site, there is a great temptation to use Wikipedia to advertise or promote sites. This includes both commercial and non-commercial sites. You should avoid linking to a website that you own, maintain or represent, even if the guidelines otherwise imply that it should be linked. If the link is to a relevant and informative site that should otherwise be included, please consider mentioning it on the talk page and let neutral and independent Wikipedia editors decide whether to add it. This is in line with the conflict of interest guidelines.

If you have additional information to add to the article, why not simply add it rather than having an external link? Adding an external link to your web site when you could easily just add the info directly is considered advertising/ promotion.

About the other exteranl links: I have cleaned up some of the other commerical links in the article. Note that people are continously adding promotional links to this article, only to have them deleted.

Steve 19:36, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Redirect?

Why does karite redirect here?

Apparently the French name (also used in English) of the shea tree and/or the shea butter is karité. Not sure which of the two articles the redirect shoudl point to. It could be redirected to Shea (a disamb page) but it applies to only two of the many senses listed there. --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 22:33, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Plagiarism?

A lot of the content on this page looks a lot like the content on http://www.naturessheabutter.com/category_s/148.htm#SheaButter101 (which is linked to from this page.) Who copied whom -- and is this OK?? FlyByPC (talk) 15:53, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Article Quality

Why does this article read like crap?? KDS4444^Talk 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Can you be more specific? --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 22:33, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Jorge: You've made many very good improvements since I made my comment above. This article used to read like few I've read on Wikipedia. It contained little useful information, and was so full of typos and grammatical errors and stylistic problems that I refused to even begin working to improve it, despite my own well-known tendency to do this. I doubt you will disagree. I worked for awhile on the article on carnuba wax that I think might be a good model for this one, and would certainly be much better than this one as it stood two months ago. KDS4444^Talk 06:11, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

The introduction makes absolutely no sense... "Shea butter is not edible and may be used in food preparation, or sometimes in the chocolate industry as a substitute for cocoa butter."

What??? is it edible or not??

"Many people make a mistake it cannot be replaced for cocoa butter because it tastes nothing like it and it has different minerals."

Uhm. What is the message here??? Xvani (talk) 11:45, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

The message is that sometimes "editors" of Wikipedia articles are flat-out idiots. Well-intentioned ones, perhaps, but idiots. And kids. More and more kids... Kids who have no idea what they are trying to say and so no idea how to phrase it without sounding stupid. And they seldom revise or edit their own work. It will get much, much worse in the next 10 years, I fear... May the lords of the Internet preserve us from careless well-intentioned children who can type but not think! KDS4444^Talk 13:17, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Shea butter contains vitamin A? Grading Shea butter?

The article claims that Shea butter contains vitamin A. I have done some research on this but it seems to me there is no such data confirming high or relevant levels of vitamin A. If no proof of this claim is added, it should be removed. Lots of commercial websites claim that Shea butter contains vitamin A, but they do not have to proof anything... they just have to sell their products. Also, the whole part about classifying Shea butter into grades is something I feel frustrated about. There are many, many variations in composition which have nothing to do with quality. The variations are the result of genetic, environmental and processing differences. The Shea tree is simply very divers en so is its butter. These variations are too numerous to be classified as a handful of quality differences and have little to do with quality in the first place.

Few days ago I made an inquiry with a french supplier (organic, conventional and unrefined Shea butter). The information they offered me had no classification. Perhaps it is something which is only done in the US? If so, it should be mentioned. But I believe the information about classifying Shea butter comes from the "American Shea Butter Institute". If you study their website you will find that they are full of bullshit. They are clearly trying to draw some authority to them by pretending to be scientific. They certainly do not deserve to carry their name. Furthermore, they are a commercial organization trying to sell quality certificates.

This article smells very much like the "American Shea Butter Institute" and I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to gain more authority by publishing their classification fantasy on Wikipedia. They are stimulating consumers to look for their quality mark. Leaving their classification information on Wikipedia will give them some credit. Clearly a commercial benefit.

Can anyone agree with me?

David —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.144.145.201 (talk) 15:28, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

National Geographic has an article that states that shea butter does have vitamin A (it includes references).

David,

Let us be clear: the primary purpose of the American Shea Butter Institute is facilitate the marketing, production, and sale of shea butter. The extent to which this is accomplished defines its own success to itself. Truths are generally secondary. It is not a supervisory body, has no oversights, and is accountable to no one except to the amorphous concept of the "customer." It may even be well-intentioned, but I ranted about good intentions a few paragraphs above already. I am tired of them. (Both rants and the good intentions).

shea butter may very well have some vitamin A in it. Nowhere in the article does it currently say in what proportions or what this means for the "consumer." That is the information which, if true, the article should include. The fact that it is still not here makes me wonder if it is really true whatever National Geographic may have to say about it. Where's the beef?

I personally believe shea butter is a great product. I wish this article were able to convey in concrete terms, in specific terms, in scientifically verifiable terms, why this is so,And not merely Why this appears to have been so throughout the course of African history, which is No better justification for its use Than the medieval practice of using leeches to cure illness (which today we all agree is patently ridiculous) or in the same terms explain to me why I am delusional (a possibility to which I am open!). So far the article does neither, to my great disappointment(and after having waited four years for it to improve). I Walkedaway feeling like I Had once again been sold a car that may or may not run in two weeks. Yuck. KDS4444^Talk 13:44, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

References

Misused reference?

I removed the statement, However, studies have shown it to reduce the effects of UV damage on the skin because it doesn't seem to be supported by the reference given (Prasad, NR; Jeyanthimala, K; Ramachandran, S (2009). "Caffeic acid modulates ultraviolet radiation-B induced oxidative damage in human blood lymphocytes". Journal of photochemistry and photobiology. B, Biology. 95 (3): 196–203. doi:10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2009.03.007. PMID 19386510.). The reference only refers to a study done on caffeic acid, and does not claim to apply to shea butter. Deli nk (talk) 14:19, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Mainly used in chocolate? Citation doesn't seem to support

The line

"Shea butter is mainly used as an ingredient in chocolate."

doesn't seem to be supported by the cited source, which briefly references shea butter's possible past use by the chocolate industry without stating the above.

A quick search didn't yield any confirmation or alternate source; if nobody chimes in I'll go ahead and remove the sentence in a week or so.

Best wishes, Abidagus (talk) 20:07, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Here's what I have: "Refined shea butter ... stearin fraction ... is a valuable cocoa butter substitute. The export quantities (from Nigeria, Dahomey, Upper Volta) amount to ca. 50 000 t/a." ref: Alfred Thomas (2002). "Fats and Fatty Oils". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. doi:10.1002/14356007.a10_173.. --Smokefoot (talk) 22:56, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Shea butter/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Comment(s)

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The attached link goes to an article posted by an International development group working in impoverished areas of Central Africa. It has a great deal of non-commercial information on the shea tree and shea butter that might be of help to the editors of this posting. I am using a public library computer so my IP address cannot be viewed on the "your talk page" because the library cleans out all personal communication when the 1-hour limit is reached. Was looking at the shea article because of interest in the ingredients in my scar-minimizer cream. http://www.solutions-site.org/artman/publish/article_10.shtml 158.59.27.249 (talk) 18:50, 2 December 2008 (UTC)robertson31@netzero.net This whole article seems like a sales pitch to me. I actually do use Shea butter as a moisturiser but I have found the claims here to be extremely exaggerated. Especially repeatedly saying it is quickly absorbed into the skin, it is not, it barely get absorbed at all in my experience as its an oil that lies on top of the skin thus keeping it moisturised. Needs a looot of research and scientific link imo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.1.150.85 (talk) 22:28, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Last edited at 22:30, 14 December 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 05:55, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

There are strange lacunae in this article

Nowhere is there a description of the mechanics of extracting the oil from the seed, though (except that under "Classification" there is mention of water extraction for Grade A material). The link to "testa" is worse than useless, pointing at a generic description of Roman brick construction (opus latericium). The "See Also" link to the page on "Shea nut and butter production in Burkina Faso" points to something about as low-quality as the present article and contains nothing about production methods.

There is no meaningful description of the plant or its fruit, though you get some of that from the link to the page about the tree itself. I think snagging a paragraph from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitellari about the fruit, and maybe include a "main article" link to the "Distribution and Habitat" section there to the "History" section here. Wscholine (talk) 15:47, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

Incorrect N’Ko text in the article?

Hi all. In regard to N’Ko text featured on the article, diacritic usage appears to be erroneous: it does not align with what I see... on one particular N’Ko-related GitHub webpage:

 https://r12a.github.io/scripts/nkoo/nqo.html

One section of that webpage states:

 N’Ko has 7 vowel letters.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.196.178.201 (talk) 11:58, 4 February 2023 (UTC) 
 Each can carry a tone mark and a nasalisation mark.
 The choice of tone mark also indicates whether the
 vowel is long or short.

In Bambara’s Latin orthography, it appears that doubling vowels marks a vowel as long, with singleton vowels thereby being short. Another section of the webpage features:

 Tones & vowel length
 *table featuring Latin diacritics on
  the left, and N’Ko diacritics on the right*

Here are the contents of the said table (the vertical line shape that the diacritics appear on... is the letter A of N’Ko):

 Latin orthography diacritic: ˊ (high tone)
    ‣ N’Ko short high tone:  ߊ߫
    ‣ N’Ko long high tone:  ߊ߯
 Latin orthography diacritic: ˋ (low tone)
    ‣ N’Ko short low tone:  ߊ߬
    ‣ N’Ko long low tone:  ߊ߰
 Latin orthography diacritic: ˇ (rising tone)
    ‣ N’Ko short rising tone:  ߊ߭
    ‣ N’Ko long rising tone:  ߊ߱
 Latin orthography diacritic: ˆ (falling tone)
    ‣ N’Ko long descending tone:  ߊ߮

I went and made a few of my own N’Ko transliterations (let me know what you think of them):

 sǐ: ‎ߛߌ߭
 sísu: ‎ߛߌ߫ߛߎ
 sìtulu: ‎ߛߌ߬ߕߎߟߎ

Signing off, D.C.M. (I do not have a Wikipedia account) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.196.178.201 (talk) 11:56, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

"Shea butter revision 2009" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Shea butter revision 2009 has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 June 5 § Shea butter revision 2009 until a consensus is reached. Regards, SONIC⁶⁷⁸ 04:46, 5 June 2023 (UTC)