Abstract
Three different pre-treated shea nut substrates: raw kernels, roasted kernels and shea nut paste from roasted kernels were subjected to treatment with three different industrial enzymes: lipase, pectinase and cellulase, separately and in combination for shea butter extraction. Enzyme mixtures was optimized at pH of 6; 3% enzyme-substrate concentration, 2 h hydrolysis time at a temperature of 60oC. The results showed that shea nut paste yielded 48% fat with pectinases (P), 52% with lipases (L) and 46% with cellulases (C) and this made it the best substrate for shea butter recovery. The amount of fat percentage wise with the same substrate increased to 52, 54 and 56 at 1:1 P+C, L+C and P+L enzyme combinations respectively. The highest extraction efficiency of 70% was recovered from 1:1:1 combination of all three industrial enzymes. Therefore, enzyme assisted aqueous hydrolysis of shea nut biomass for shea butter production is a promising technology with a great potential (extraction efficiency and safety) to substitute traditional extraction methods. Key words: Shea kernels, shea butter, traditional extraction, solvent extraction, commercial enzymes.
Highlights
The importance of the shea tree is considered second to the palm tree (Paulsen, 1981) because of the benefits of its butter to many industries both locally and internationally (Soladoye et al, 1989; Russo and Etherington, 2001; Chaffin, 2004; Ndukwe et al, 2007; Ogbonnaya and Adgidizi, 2008; Akihisa et al, 2010)
All three substrates showed relatively low moisture contents (Figure 3), the roasted shea kernels (ROSK) sample showed the lowest moisture content of 5.71%, raw shea kernels (RASK) with 7.22% moisture content and the highest moisture levels was observed with shea kernel paste (SKEP) at 10.32%
The traditional floor drying after 14 days of sun-drying produced moisture content of values ranging from 7 TO 7.5% (Aculey et al, 2012) and this is consistent with the moisture content of the raw shea kernels (7.22%) originally processed by the traditional sun-drying method
Summary
The importance of the shea tree is considered second to the palm tree (Paulsen, 1981) because of the benefits of its butter to many industries both locally and internationally (Soladoye et al, 1989; Russo and Etherington, 2001; Chaffin, 2004; Ndukwe et al, 2007; Ogbonnaya and Adgidizi, 2008; Akihisa et al, 2010). To date the traditional method of extraction is the preferred choice of most shea butter industries in Ghana (Addaquaye, 2004). This method of shea butter production encompasses many manual unit operations instituting some challenges which render the whole process tedious and laborious (Olanyan and Oje, 2007). In West Africa, the manual procedure employed by rural women in shea butter extraction involves: beating the kernel with pestle and mortar to break the seed into grits, cooking the kernel to accomplish ease of oil recovery, grinding the grits into paste, kneading the paste in water to capture the fat into
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