Vernac. names.—Emi-Ori, Emigidi (Yoruba, Thompson); Emi (Lagos, MacGregor, Phillips, Dawodu); Kadainya (Hausa, Dudgeon); Nku (Ashanti, Thompson); Ya (Nile, Dawe); Eya (Acholi, Uganda, Dawe); Lulu (Sudan, Col. Rep. Misc. No. 88, 1914, p. 541); Bambuk (Sierra Leone, Scott Elliot); Meepampa (Madi, Grant); Somu (Togoland, Engler); Shea Toulou (Niger, Park); Karité (French W. Africa, Perrot, Chevalier, Planchon, Noury, Ammann, Henry); Karité or Karé (F.W. Afr. Pobéguin).—Shea Butter, Beurre de Karité, Beurre de Galam, Bambouk butter, Gutta Shea.
Lagos, Abeokuta, Nupe, Zungeru, Jeba, Borgu, Zaria, Hasarawa in Nigeria, and extending westwards to Togoland, Dahomey, Gold Coast, Bambarra, etc., eastwards to the Nile land—Gondokoro, Madi, Djurland and the Niam-Niam country.
[…] Used for making mortars, bowls and the branches for houseposts, Yoruba (Thompson, List of For. Trees, S. Nig. 1910, p. 6). The bark is used medicinally by the natives (l.c.). The fruit is edible, but the main value of the tree lies in the seeds or “Shea nuts.”
The kernels yield about 50 per cent. of fat known in commerce as “Shea Butter,” as exported from the Niger, and the oil extracted from the kernels in this country is known as “Shea Nut Oil.” The residue after the extraction of the butter is used by the natives to smear on their mud huts to keep out the rain (Bull. Imp. Inst. 1913, p. 156). Meal from the nuts of Shea butter (said to come from Nigeria) crushed at Antwerp, was being offered in Liverpool, 1910. It has a somewhat acrid taste and it is doubtful whether cattle would eat it unless disguised by other foods. The fat is used for making candles and to a smaller extent in soap manufacture. Of latter years it has found a use in the manufacture of substitutes for butter more especially on the Continent, and it has been suggested as a substitute for tallow as used in sizing cotton cloth. Locally it is used by the natives for food, for rubbing on their bodies, and for lighting purposes.
In preparing the butter, the outer pulp of the fruit is first removed and the nuts dried in the sun or by the aid of artificial heat. The outer shell is taken off and the kernels after further drying are braised and boiled, the fat being skimmed off the surface somewhat in the same manner as for the extraction of palm oil. The oil as it cools solidifies like lard, pure white or tinted according to the method of preparation.
The list of illustrations and the measurements of the wood (pp. 410–411) are marked […]; the chemical analyses, trade figures, distribution notes and reading list that follow on pp. 411–415 are not transcribed.