སྒྱུ་རྩལ
མཛེས་སྡུག་དང་བདེ་ཐང
བཟོ་རིག
རིག་གནས་དང་ལོ་རྒྱུས
དགའ་སྟོན
ཁོར་ཡུག
ཟས་དང་བཏུང་རྫས
ཕྱིར་འཕྲུལ་རིག
ཚན་རིག
རྩེད་འགྲན
རིག་རྩལ
གྱོན་རུང
Shea Fruit Processing — From Shea Fruit Collection to Oil Extraction
English
BabaMola

བཟོས་མཁན

BabaMola

22. སྤྱི་ཟླ་བཞི་པ 2026NG
༢༧
༠
༠
༠
༠

Shea Fruit Processing — From Shea Fruit Collection to Oil Extraction

A guide for collecting shea fruit in southern Nigeria. The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) is a valuable tree that produces fruit for twenty to twenty-five years. This book explains how to select ripe fruits, how to process them, and how to extract shea butter for cosmetic use.

འགོ་བཙུགས
2-3 days

ལམ་སྟོན

1

Understanding the Shea Tree

The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) grows 10-15 meters tall with large, sturdy leaves, thriving in the savanna zone. Its fruit resembles a small coconut with dark green skin. A single tree can bear fruit for 200 years.
2

Waiting for the Fruiting Season

Shea fruits ripen between June and September (Okudu-Owewe) in southern Nigeria. Ripe fruit will fall from the tree on its own. Do not pick fruit from the tree — only fallen fruit is properly ripe.
3

Collecting Fallen Fruit

Early in the morning, follow the fallen fruit under shea trees. Collect them into baskets or bags. A single tree can yield 15-20 kg of fruit per year.

གོམ་པ་འདིའི་རྫས་རིགས:

Fallen Shea FruitFallen Shea Fruit5 kilogram

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Woven Collection BasketWoven Collection Basket
4

Removing the Fruit Pulp

Shea fruit has a green outer skin and sweet pulp inside. Remove the pulp from the shea nut. The shea fruit pulp is edible — it is sweet and contains vitamin C. Children often eat it.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Small KnifeSmall Knife
5

Washing the Shea Nuts

Wash the shea nuts thoroughly in cool, clean water to remove remaining pulp and dirt. Clean water is important for preventing microbial contamination.

གོམ་པ་འདིའི་རྫས་རིགས:

Distilled Water (1 Liter)Distilled Water (1 Liter)10 ལི་ཊར།

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Washing BasinWashing Basin
6

Boiling the Shea Nuts

Place the shea nuts in boiling water for 20-30 minutes. Boiling kills organisms that could cause the nuts to sprout, and softens the shell for cracking.

གོམ་པ་འདིའི་རྫས་རིགས:

Water for Boiling15 ལི་ཊར།

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Large Cooking PotLarge Cooking Pot
FirewoodFirewood
7

Cooling the Boiled Nuts

Remove the nuts from the boiling water and spread them on a mat or rack where air can circulate. Allow them to cool for 1-2 hours.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Drying MatDrying Mat
8

Cracking the Nut Shells

The shea nut shell is hard. Use a stone or mallet to crack the shells one by one. Be careful not to crush the kernel inside — the kernel is what we need. Work carefully and methodically.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Flat Cracking StoneFlat Cracking Stone
Hammer Stone
9

Extracting the Kernels from the Shells

Remove the white-to-brown kernel from the cracked shell. A single shea kernel weighs approximately 5-8 grams. Set the shells aside — they can be used as fuel for cooking.
10

Inspecting Kernels for Quality

A good kernel has a white-cream to light brown color. Kernels that are black or have a bad smell are spoiled — discard them. Cut a kernel in half — the inside should be cream-colored.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Small KnifeSmall Knife
11

Spreading Kernels in the Sun to Dry

Spread kernels on a mat or rack in the sun. Do not pile them on top of each other. Turn them two to three times daily to ensure even drying on all sides.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Drying MatDrying Mat
Drying RackDrying Rack
12

Drying for 5-7 Days

Kernels need 5-7 days to dry properly in the sun. At night or during rain, collect them into a dry space. Properly dried kernels should have no more than 7% moisture content.
13

Testing the Dried Kernels

Properly dried kernels are hard and make a sound when they hit the ground. If you break one open, the inside should be dry and firm — not moist or soft. Their weight will have reduced by approximately three-quarters.
14

Packing the Dried Kernels into Bags

Place dried kernels into breathable burlap or jute bags. Do not use plastic bags — they trap moisture and cause kernels to spoil. Label each bag with contents and drying date.

གོམ་པ་འདིའི་རྫས་རིགས:

Burlap Storage SackBurlap Storage Sack2 དུམ་བུ།
15

Storing Kernels in a Dry Place

Place bags in a dry, cool, well-ventilated storage area. Elevate bags off the ground on pallets or raised platforms. Properly dried shea kernels can last up to 12 months without spoiling.

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ:

Wooden PalletWooden Pallet

རྫས་རིགས

4

ལག་ཆས་དགོས་མཁོ

10

CC0 སྤྱི་དབང

བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་འདི་CC0 འོག་བཀྲམས་ཡོད། ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་ཆོག་མཆན་མ་བཞེས་པར་ཕབ་ལེན་དང་བཟོ་བཅོས། བགོ་བཤའ། དགོས་མཁོ་གང་ལའང་བཀོལ་སྤྱོད་བྱས་ཆོག

བཟོ་མཁན་ལ་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བྱེད་པའི་ཆེད་ཁོང་ཚོའི་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་བརྒྱུད་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་ཉོ། བཟོ་མཁན་གྱིས བཟོ་མཁན་གྱི་ཁེ་ཕོགས ཚོང་པས་གཏན་འཁེལ་བྱས་པ། ཡང་ན་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་འདིའི་པར་གསར་བཟོས་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་བིལུ་པིརིན་ཊི་ནང་མཐུད་སྦྲེལ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཡོང་སྒོ་བགོ་བཤའ་བྱེད།

གྲོས་བསྡུར

(0)

ནང་འཛུལ གྲོས་བསྡུར་ནང་མཉམ་ཞུགས་ཆེད

བསམ་ཚུལ་ཚུ་ཐོབ་བཞིན...