Shea Butter
INCI Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter. Saponified with NaOH it is listed as Sodium Shea Butterate, with KOH as Potassium Shea Butterate. CAS 194043-92-0, 91080-23-8; EC 293-515-7, as CosIng gives them. Also: Unrefined shea butter, Raw shea butter, Butyrospermum parkii butter, Karite butter, Vitellaria paradoxa butter.
Published values
| Saponification value | 179.3–190 mg KOH/g (typical 183) |
| Used by the calculator | 183.0 mg KOH/g (typical) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1305 g/g |
| Iodine value | 30–75 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 131 |
| Melting point | 33–40.5 °C |
| Unsaponifiable matter | 2.4–11.6 % (typical 6.2) |
Soapmaking books print about 0.128 g NaOH per g (median of 10 books), which agrees with ours to within 2 %.
A bar made of 100 % Shea Butter
Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.
How much lye
| Oil | NaOH | KOH |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 62.0 g(60.7–64.3) | 86.9 g(85.2–90.3) |
| 1 kg | 123.9 g(121.4–128.7) | 173.9 g(170.3–180.5) |
| 1 lb (454 g) | 56.2 g(55.1–58.4) | 78.9 g(77.3–81.9) |
| 2 lb (907 g) | 112.4 g(110.2–116.7) | 157.7 g(154.5–163.7) |
For this oil alone at 5 % superfat, with pure sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or pure potassium hydroxide (KOH); in brackets, across the published range of its saponification value. KOH is usually sold at 90 %: divide by 0.9. For a whole recipe, open the calculator.
Fatty-acid profile
Saturated : unsaturated 46 : 54
| Fatty acid | Published range, % | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 1.9–5 | 3.5 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 27.7–55.7 | 41.7 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 34–60.7 | 47.4 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 4.4–7.9 | 6.2 |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 · saturated | 0–1.8 | 0.9 |
Recipes that use it
- 100 % butter bar 60 % of the oils
- African black soap homage 30 % of the oils
- Charcoal pencil line bar 30 % of the oils
- Shea and cocoa butter luxury bar 30 % of the oils
- Butter bar 25 % of the oils
- Goat milk and shea hot process bar 25 % of the oils
- Sage and citrus bar 25 % of the oils
- Banana and oat bar 20 % of the oils
- Chai spice bar 20 % of the oils
- French green clay facial bar 20 % of the oils
- Goat milk, oat and honey bar 20 % of the oils
- Green cube embed bar 20 % of the oils
Guides that discuss it
- Choosing the oils for your first soap
- Dreaded orange spots (DOS) and rancid soap
- Heat in soapmaking: lye solution, soaping temperature and gel
- Marseille soap: what savon de Marseille is and what 72 % means
- Palm-free soap: what takes palm oil's place
- SAP values: what they measure and why tables disagree
- Swirl techniques: in the pot, drop, hanger, spoon and Taiwan
- The 25er-Rezept: Germany's four-oil beginner soap, with or without palm
- The soaping oils: what each one brings to a bar
- Your first cold process soap, step by step
Compared with other oils
Where these numbers come from
Table 5 (GLC fatty-acid composition of 36 individual shea nut samples) and Results sections 3.2 (NSL/non-saponifiable lipid content, Table 2) and 3.5 (fatty-acid prose ranges) supplied the fattyAcidsPercent and the unsaponifiable share fields.
Standard for 'Shea butter (Unrefined)': iodine value 30-75, saponification value 160-200 (used for those two fields), unsaponifiable matter not more than 19%, free fatty acids not more than 8%, refractive index 1.4620-1.4650 at 44 C. Item inserted by 2019 amendment, gazetted 2021.
Table 4: traditional wet-extracted butter (SBT) SAP 167.4 mg KOH/g, iodine 21.43 gI2/100g, melting point 33.0 C; solvent-extracted butter (SBS) SAP 202.9 mg KOH/g, iodine 13.19 gI2/100g, melting point 40.5 C. Nigerian samples. Melting-point figures used for the field; its iodine values were treated as an outlier and not used (see notes).
Ivory Coast beige/yellow shea butter: iodine 52.64/53.06 gI2/100g (corroborates the FSSAI-sourced field). Its unsaponifiable matter (17.61%/17.27%) and fatty acids (palmitic 16.42%/26.36%, stearic 32.39%/36.36%, oleic 38.12%/29.09%, linoleic 9.72%/5.92%, arachidic 1.84%/1.59%) were NOT used - inconsistent with Akihisa et al.'s much larger 36-sample dataset, recorded here only for transparency.
Internet Archive capture (3 August 2025) of the FAO file. Table 2: relative density (20 C) 0.91-0.98, density (40 C) 0.89-0.93, saponification value 160-195 mg KOH/g fat, iodine value 30-75, unsaponifiable matter 1-19 % m/m, refractive index at 44 C 1.4620-1.4650, melting point 35-40 C. Table 3: lauric <1, myristic <0.7, palmitic 2-10, palmitoleic <0.3, stearic 25-50, oleic 32-62, linoleic 1-11, linolenic <1, C20:0 <3.5 %. The standard says its limits are broad because they cover shea from all production areas. Regulatory limits, recorded in notes rather than as the band.
Crude Ghanaian shea fat: saponification value 190.0, iodine value 64.2, unsaponifiable 9.0 %, palmitic 4.8, stearic 45.9 %. Sets the maximum.
FATTY ACIDS AND UNSAPONIFIABLE MATTER (both from the primary source): Akihisa et al. 2010 (J Oleo Sci) ran GLC on 36 individually-analyzed shea kernel fat samples from 7 countries (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad, Sudan, Uganda). Its own prose-stated ranges (Results 3.5): oleic 34.0-60.7%, stearic 27.7-55.7%, linoleic 4.4-7.9%, palmitic 1.9-5.0%, arachidic 'tr-1.8%' (trace treated as 0 for min). Myristic acid was present only as 'tr' (trace) throughout all 36 samples in Table 5, with no quantified range stated, so it is left out rather than guessed. Unsaponifiable matter uses this paper's 'NSL' (non-saponifiable lipid) content, Table 2/Results 3.2: range 2.4-11.6% across the 36 samples, mean 6.2% (used as typical) - NSL is obtained by saponification and partition, the same concept the AOCS 'unsaponifiable matter' test targets. IODINE VALUE 30-75 gI2/100g is from the FSSAI (India) regulatory standard for unrefined shea butter (see provenance); its saponification value, 160-200, is the regulatory envelope discussed below. Akihisa et al. report neither classical constant. Two additional primary sources were checked and partly corroborate, partly conflict: Ajala et al. 2015 (PMC4711458, Nigerian samples) measured SAP 167.4 mg KOH/g (traditional wet extraction) and 202.9 mg KOH/g (solvent extraction, slightly above the FSSAI ceiling), and melting point 33.0 C / 40.5 C for the same two extraction methods (used as the the melting point field, since no other primary source measured it) - but its iodine values (21.43 and 13.19 gI2/100g) are far below every other source checked and were treated as a discrepant outlier, excluded from the field. Megnanou & Niamke 2015 (PMC4631807, two Ivory Coast composite samples, beige/yellow) measured iodine 52.64/53.06 gI2/100g, comfortably inside the FSSAI band (used only as corroboration, not the field itself, which already came from FSSAI); but its fatty-acid figures (palmitic 16.42%/26.36%, stearic 32.39%/36.36%, oleic 38.12%/29.09%, linoleic 9.72%/5.92%, arachidic 1.84%/1.59%) and unsaponifiable matter (17.61%/17.27%) are far outside Akihisa's 36-sample range - especially palmitic, which every other source puts at roughly 2-5%, not 16-26% - so these Megnanou figures were NOT used for any field, recorded here only for transparency. See shea-butter-refined.json for AAK's refined (RBD) commercial product spec, which is a meaningfully tighter/different profile. SAPONIFICATION VALUE: the band is now the span of measured shea materials, not the regulatory envelope: 179.3 (the lowest of Bunge's three shea olein batches, GRN 850; the olein concentrates shea's unsaponifiable matter, so it bounds the butter from below), 183 (AAK's refined LIPEX Shea, 7 % unsaponifiable; the typical) and 190.0 (crude Ghanaian shea, 1977, via PlantFAdb). The composition agrees: counting shea's triterpene alcohols as the cinnamate esters they mostly are, Akihisa's 2.4-11.6 % unsaponifiable gives 177-187 mg KOH/g. The regulatory limits stay in these notes: Codex CXS 325R-2017 160-195 and FSSAI 160-200, both covering unsaponifiable matter up to 19 %; a crude butter at that extreme could saponify near 168, and 195-200 is above anything shea can reach. Ajala et al.'s 167.4 and 202.9 are not relied on (the same table gives impossible iodine values).
This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL), which you can download as CSV or JSON. Found an error or a better primary source? Corrections with a link to the document are welcome at support@soapformulator.com.