Refined Shea Butter
INCI Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter. Saponified with NaOH it is listed as Sodium Shea Butterate, with KOH as Potassium Shea Butterate. Also: Shea butter RBD, Butyrospermum parkii butter, refined, Refined, bleached, deodorized shea butter.
Published values
| Saponification value | 160–200 mg KOH/g (typ. 183) |
| Used by the calculator | 183.0 mg KOH/g (typical) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1305 g/g |
| Iodine value | 62–72 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 116 |
| Melting point | 33 °C |
| Unsaponifiable matter | ≤ 10 % |
A bar made of 100 % Refined Shea Butter
Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.
Fatty-acid profile
| 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 |
Where these numbers come from
Full spec table as distributed via the Knowde ingredient marketplace: acid value max 0.5 mg KOH/g; peroxide value max 1 meq/kg; iodine value 62-72 (Wijs); unsaponifiables 7%; saponification value 183 mg KOH/g; hydroxyl value 5 mg KOH/g; density 0.89 g/cm3 at 50 C; slip melting point 33 C; refractive index 1.459 at 60 C; OSI 45 h at 110 C; solid fat content 20% at 35 C. No fatty-acid composition table is given on this page.
Standard for 'Shea butter (Refined)': iodine value 30-75, saponification value 160-200 (used for the min/max here), unsaponifiable matter not more than 10%, free fatty acids not more than 0.25%, moisture not more than 0.1%, flash point not less than 250 C, refractive index 1.4620-1.4650 at 44 C.
Source of the fattyAcidsPercent field, carried over from crude shea kernel fat analysis (36 samples, 7 countries) because AAK's own sheet omits fatty-acid data - see notes for the chemistry justification.
This record exists because AAK publishes a distinct spec for its refined (RBD) shea butter, LIPEX Shea, that is a materially tighter/different envelope than crude shea (see shea-butter.json): fixed iodine value 62-72 (vs 30-75 for the broad crude range), a single saponification-value target of 183 mg KOH/g, an unsaponifiables target of 7%, and a fixed slip melting point of 33 C, versus crude shea's much wider natural variability. sapKohMgPerG min/max (160-200) is FSSAI's regulatory band for 'Shea butter (Refined)', which brackets AAK's 183 typical; iodineValue 62-72, unsaponifiablePercent typical 7, and meltingPointC 33 are AAK's own single-point TDS values (no ranges given in the sheet). FSSAI's refined-butter unsaponifiable-matter ceiling is 'not more than 10 per cent' (used as max here; this specific cell required reconstructing a mis-flowed PDF table, so confidence is moderate, not full) alongside free fatty acids not more than 0.25%, moisture not more than 0.1%, flash point not less than 250 C, and the same iodine band as unrefined (30-75) - AAK's own 62-72 sits inside that band and is used here instead because it is the product-specific figure. FATTY ACID COMPOSITION: AAK's technical data sheet does not publish a fatty-acid table, so this field is carried over unchanged from Akihisa et al. 2010's 36-sample crude shea kernel-fat analysis (see shea-butter.json for full sourcing), on the standard fat-chemistry basis that RBD refining (neutralization, bleaching, steam deodorization) acts on free fatty acids, pigments, odor compounds and part of the unsaponifiable fraction, not on the intact triglycerides' fatty-acid distribution. It is NOT an AAK-specific measurement and is flagged here for transparency. AAK's sheet additionally lists (not captured by this schema): acid value max 0.5 mg KOH/g, peroxide value max 1 meq/kg, hydroxyl value 5 mg KOH/g, density 0.89 g/cm3 at 50 C, refractive index 1.459 at 60 C, oxidative stability index 45 h at 110 C, solid fat content 20% at 35 C.
This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL). Found an error or a better primary source? The dataset is on GitHub; corrections with a document link are welcome.