Network for the Valorization of Plant Materials (VPMA)

Principal investigators: 
Dr. Rigobert Yaméogo: Institut de recherches en sciences appliquées et technologiques, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) 
E-mail: [email protected] 
Dr. Joawad Fichtali: POS Pilot Plant Corp., Saskatoon (Canada) 

Shea nuts and butter are an important source of income for rural women of Sahel. Traditionally, women and children harvest nuts during the wet season, process and store them. Later on, butter is also extracted by women during the dry season. The Burkina Faso Government has recently identified the shea butter, as one of few renewable natural resources presenting a great potential for export. In order to extract the shea butter, the Government bought 80 presses designed by a previous IDRC funded project (91-1029), and Canadian International Development Agency has approved a consolidating project which will support the development of “Shea butter filière” by improving its efficacy and increasing its contribution to the national economy. This will be achieved mainly through training and dissemination of information. However, research is required to set up purification standard methods in order to improve the quality of products. In this regard, researchers from the Institut de recherche en sciences appliquées et technologiques, with their Canadian partners, will search new methods for processing Shea butter to improve its quality. These methods should improve on the colour and the rancidness of the butter in order to enhance its acceptability on the national market as a substitute to imported oils used in food preparations, and on international market for pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.