JPWO2011122278A1 - Extraction method of shea fat - Google Patents

Abstract

By extracting shea fat from a shea nut using a specific polar organic solvent, it is possible to obtain a shea fat having an isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content within a range acceptable as a fat for chocolate. The extraction method is the subject. When extracting shea butter from shea nuts, it is extracted with a specific polar organic solvent, leaving a slightly soluble isoprene-based unsaponifiable product on the side of the nut residue, and isoprene-based unsaponification in the extracted oil. Reduce product content to an acceptable level.

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for extracting shea butter from shea nuts, and is capable of efficiently reducing the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in shea butter extracted using a specific polar organic solvent. Regarding the method.

  According to the description of Non-Patent Document 1, shea butter is derived from shea nuts, which are the seeds of the fruit of the butterfly (scientific name: Butyrospermum parkii), which is a dicotyledon of the Acetaceae family distributed in the Sahel from Chapel Vuelde in Africa. Manufactured through manual or solvent extraction. The main countries of origin are Nigeria and Ghana, but manual extraction is the mainstream in these West African countries.

  In the extraction by hand, water is added to kneaded shea nuts and kneaded to obtain an emulsion in which fat is mixed with water. Next, cold water is added to float the emulsion, and a fat-containing emulsion is collected. Heating and dissolving the collected emulsion to separate fat and water, removing moisture from the separated fat by heating, and finally crushing with a filter to obtain crude shea fat (also called shea butter). .

  On the other hand, solvent extraction is carried out mainly in European countries, and n-hexane, which is mainly a nonpolar solvent (also referred to as a low polarity solvent), is used from a shea nut (also referred to as a shea kernel) imported from West African countries. Solvent extraction.

  It is said that shea fat is hardly oxidized because stearic acid and oleic acid occupy most of the constituent fatty acids and has a high skin moisturizing effect. In addition, since fats and oils contain trace components such as tocopherol, carotenoids and terpene alcohol, it is said to have an effect of softening the skin and to prevent wrinkles and sagging, and is widely used as a raw material for cosmetics.

  In addition, since shea fat contains a relatively large amount of SOS (S: stearic acid, O: oleic acid) components of symmetrical triglycerides, CBE for chocolate (Cocoa Butter Equivalent: a substitute for cocoa butter having physical properties similar to cocoa butter) As a fat, it is one of the essential ingredients in the domestic and overseas chocolate market.

  As is well known, a high melting point unsaponifiable matter mainly composed of an isoprene-based polymer is 1 in the shea fat extracted from shea nuts by a conventional manual extraction method or a non-polar organic solvent extraction method using hexane or the like. -10%. If shea fat containing a high content of such a high melting point unsaponifiable product is used as a fat for chocolate, the tempering workability is reduced due to an increase in viscosity in the chocolate manufacturing process, and the melting of the chocolate and the coolness in the mouth are reduced. There is a problem of end. Furthermore, since the unsaponifiable matter is a highly unsaturated hydrocarbon, it is easily oxidized, and the stability of the oil and fat is greatly reduced. For this reason, various studies have been made in the past regarding methods for producing shea butter that can reduce such unsaponifiable matter to an acceptable range and become high-quality CBE.

  In Patent Document 1, when the shea fat is subjected to solvent fractionation, the shea fat is dissolved in 2 to 10 times the amount of n-hexane, and then kept at a low temperature for an appropriate time to precipitate 2 to 7% by weight of insoluble matter, The present invention relates to a method for fractionating shea fat, in which the insoluble matter is removed by filtration, and then cooling is continued to collect a crystal portion that precipitates in a yield of 70% by weight or less. By this method, it is possible to obtain a high-quality shea fractionated fat for CBE in which the content of the high-melting point unsaponifiable matter is sufficiently reduced, and an insoluble matter precipitation step for removing the high-melting point unsaponifiable matter, Since the insoluble matter must be removed by filtration, the shea fat fractionation process becomes complicated and complicated, and filter membranes such as filter cloth for separating and removing the insoluble matter are clogged over time. However, there is a problem that the filtration membrane needs to be washed.

  Patent Document 2 relates to a method for separating fats and oils using a monohydric alcohol having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and n-hexane as a solvent to release a gum substance at 20 to 30 ° C., and to separate and remove the gum substance. And then further cooling to obtain a fractionated shea fat as a medium melting point triglyceride fraction. This method also had the same problem as Patent Document 1 for separating and removing the gum substance.

    Patent Document 3 relates to a degumming method of shea butter, by mixing a polar organic solvent such as acetone with shea butter and keeping it at a predetermined temperature for a certain period of time to insolubilize unsaponifiable matter, and filter or centrifuge. It is a method of separating and removing by liquid separation operation. This method also has the same problem as Patent Document 1 for separating and removing unsaponifiable matter. In addition, since a part of the oil and fat is removed together with the high-melting point unsaponifiable matter fraction, there is a problem that the yield of the shea fat from which the high-melting point unsaponifiable matter is removed is lowered.

Free encyclopedia "Wikipedia" shea butter

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 52-063206 JP-A-52-151306 JP 61-42595 A

  The object of the present invention is to extract a shea fat from a shea nut using a specific polar organic solvent, thereby obtaining a shea fat having a high melting point unsaponifiable matter content within a range acceptable as a fat for chocolate. It is in providing the extraction method of shea fat.

  When extracting the shea fat from the shea nuts, the present inventors extract the high melting point unsaponifiable matter content in the extracted oil within the allowable range as the fat for chocolate by extracting with a specific polar organic solvent. The present invention has been completed on the basis of the knowledge that it can be reduced to a minimum.

  This invention was made | formed based on the said knowledge, and 1st of this invention is the extraction method of the shea fat characterized by extracting shea fat from a shea nut using a polar organic solvent. The second is the extraction method according to the first aspect, wherein the polar organic solvent is an organic solvent belonging to ketones or lower alcohols. The third is the extraction method according to the second item, wherein the polar organic solvent is acetone. Fourthly, the extraction method according to the second aspect, wherein the polar organic solvent is isopropanol. Fifth is the extraction method according to any one of the first to fourth methods in which shea fat is extracted from shea nuts by countercurrent extraction. Sixth is the extraction method according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the content of the isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted shea fat is 1% by weight or less.

  By extracting shea fat from shea nuts using a specific polar organic solvent, it is possible to extract shea fat that has a high melting point unsaponifiable matter content within the allowable range for fats and oils for chocolate only by the extraction process. Is. The shea nut-extracted shea fat according to the present invention has an advantage that the high-melting point unsaponifiable matter content is sufficiently reduced, and thus there is no need for a conventional high-melting point unsaponifiable removal step by the shea butter after-treatment. . In addition, there is no need for regular washing of the filter membrane to remove the high melting point unsaponifiable matter, and when the shea fat extracted by the present invention is further fractionated, it is derived from the high melting point unsaponifiable matter. Since there is almost no clogging of the filtration membrane, there is an advantage that continuous separation work is possible.

  The shea nuts used in the present invention are sun-dried shea fruits produced in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, removed from pulp, and shelled from nuts (also called shea kernels). ˜60 wt%, water 10 wt% or less, preferably 7 wt% or less can be suitably used.

  Prior to solvent extraction, shea nuts are preferably coarsely pulverized or finely pulverized using various known pulverizers in order to facilitate the extraction of oils and fats. The state of pulverization is not particularly limited, but in order to improve the efficiency of solvent extraction, the particle size is preferably 5 mm or less, preferably 2 mm or less, and most preferably 1 mm or less.

  As the polar organic solvent in the present invention, an organic solvent in which the isoprene-based high-melting point unsaponifiable matter contained in the shea fat is hardly soluble and the triglyceride that is the main component of the oil and fat is easily soluble can be suitably used. . Specifically, ketones such as acetone and methyl ethyl ketone which are medium polar solvents, aliphatic monohydric alcohols having 1 to 4 carbon atoms such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, butyl alcohol and isopropanol which are strong polar solvents, and low polarity A mixed solvent of n-hexane or the like, which is a solvent, and the strong polar solvent can be used. In particular, the use of acetone or isopropanol having a relatively high triglyceride solubility is preferable because of the advantage that the amount of the organic solvent used can be reduced in the oil extraction process. In addition, when the solvent is distilled and reused in the extraction process after completion of extraction, it is more preferable to use a single solvent than a mixed solvent from the viewpoint of solvent quality control.

  The water content of the polar organic solvent in the present invention is not particularly limited, but when the water content is high, the solubility of the oil and fat is lowered, while the poor solubility of the isoprene-based high melting point unsaponifiable matter is further increased, so that the isoprene-based high melting point in the extracted oil and fat is increased. The unsaponifiable content tends to be lower. However, if the water content becomes too high, the oil solubility becomes too low and the oil extraction efficiency decreases, so the water content is 5 wt% or less, preferably 3 wt% or less, and most preferably 1 wt% or less. Is desirable.

  As the method for extracting fats and oils in the present invention, a batch extraction method, a countercurrent extraction method, or the like can be suitably used, and a countercurrent extraction method is particularly preferable. Since all of these extraction methods use a large amount of an organic solvent, it is preferable that the extraction device has a sealed explosion-proof specification from the viewpoint of safety.

  In the batch type extraction method, nuts pulverized in advance are put in a solvent extraction tank, a polar organic solvent is added, and extraction is performed in a state where the polar organic solvent is heated to a temperature higher than the melting temperature of fats and oils in the nut. In order to increase the efficiency of extraction, it is preferable to appropriately stir with a propeller or the like during the extraction step. After completion of such batch extraction, the nut residue and the extraction solvent can be separated by filtration or centrifugation, and the extraction solvent can be distilled to obtain an extracted oil. When unextracted oil remains in the nut residue, it is preferable to repeat the same extraction operation several times to sufficiently recover the residual oil content of the nut residue.

  The countercurrent extraction method is a method of extracting fats and oils while refluxing them with a pump or the like for a certain period of time in an extraction solvent heated above the melting temperature of the extracted fats and oils in a column or tank filled with crushed nuts. It is. In such a method, the oil and fat extraction efficiency tends to be improved as compared with the batch extraction method described above, and thus there is an advantage that the amount of solvent used for extraction can be reduced. Also in the case of countercurrent extraction, when the residual oil content of the nut residue is high, it is preferable to perform countercurrent extraction multiple times to sufficiently recover the residual oil content of the nut residue.

  Although there is no restriction | limiting in particular in the usage-amount of the polar organic solvent used for extraction of the shea fat in this invention, Since the used organic solvent needs to distill after extraction, 60 times weight% or less of extraction nut weight from an economical viewpoint, It is preferably 30 times by weight or less, and most preferably 15 times by weight or less. When performing the extraction a plurality of times, it is preferable to divide the above-mentioned usage amount into a plurality of times and use it as the total usage amount.

  The extraction temperature of the shea fat in the present invention may be equal to or higher than the melting temperature of the shea fat, but in order to smoothly perform solvent extraction, separation of nut residue and extraction solvent and distillation of the solvent from the extraction solvent, From the viewpoint, it is preferably in the range of 30 ° C. to 5 ° C. or less of the boiling point of the organic solvent used. For example, in the case of acetone, the boiling point is 56.2 ° C., and therefore it is preferably 40 to 50 ° C., and in the case of isopropanol, the boiling point is 82.3 ° C. and is preferably 50 to 75 ° C.

  The content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the shea butter extracted by the extraction method of the present invention is 1% by weight or less, preferably 0.5% by weight or less. When the unsaponifiable content exceeds the upper limit, the viscosity increase of the chocolate dough using CBE for chocolate (cocoa butter substitute fat having physical properties similar to cocoa butter) using extracted shea fat as a raw material is remarkable. At the same time, the chocolate dough is tempered and solidified in the usual way, and the melting of the molded chocolate is reduced, resulting in an oily texture.

  The shea fat in which the content of the isoprene-based unsaponified product according to the present invention is reduced to 1% by weight or less is widely used in food applications centering on CBE for chocolate as purified shea fat by deoxidation, decolorization, and deodorization as usual. Available. Depending on the use of CBE, it can also be used as CBE for chocolate mixed with the middle melting point of palm oil. Moreover, it fractionates by solvent fractionation or dry fractionation before refining to obtain a shea fat hard part with an increased SOS component (S: stearic acid, O: oleic acid) content, and the purified shea fat hard part is left as it is or purified. A mixed oil of a shea fat hard part and a middle melting point part of palm oil can also be used as CBE. Moreover, it is also possible to mix the shea fat hard part before refinement | purification and palm oil middle melting | fusing point part, refine | purify a mixed oil as usual, and can utilize as CBE.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail by way of examples. In the examples, “%” and “parts” are based on weight unless otherwise specified.

Example 1
Ghana dried shea nuts (moisture 5.23%) were coarsely pulverized using a mortar and then further pulverized with a homomixer to obtain pulverized nuts having a 12 mesh pass (a sieve opening of 1.4 mm).
78.5 g of crushed nuts were weighed into a cylindrical filter paper for Soxhlet extraction, and with a Soxhlet extractor using primary acetone (purity 99.0%, moisture 0.02%), evaporating temperature 60 ° C., extraction part temperature ( Measured with a surface thermometer) The solvent was refluxed at 40 to 50 ° C., and the oil and fat content was extracted by refluxing the inside of the extractor 5 times until it was filled with the refluxing solvent. The amount of solvent used in one reflux was about 1,000 ml.
The recovery rate of nuts obtained from the extracted oil was 50.7%, and the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted oil was 0.25%.

Example 2
78.5 g of the same crushed nut as in Example 1 was weighed into a cylindrical filter paper for Soxhlet extraction, and the solvent was refluxed with a Soxhlet extractor using primary isopropanol (purity 99.0%) at an evaporation temperature of 110 ° C. The extractor was extracted by refluxing the inside of the extractor 5 times until it was filled with the refluxing solvent. The amount of solvent used in one reflux was about 1,000 ml.
The extract oil obtained had a recovery rate of nuts of 46.0% and the isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content in the extract oil was 0.10%.

Example 3
78.6 g of the same crushed nut as in Example 1 was weighed into a cylindrical filter paper for Soxhlet extraction, and the solvent was refluxed at 110 ° C. evaporation temperature using primary ethyl alcohol (purity 95.0%) in the Soxhlet extractor. The oil and fat content was extracted by refluxing the extractor until it was filled with refluxing solvent 5 times. The amount of solvent used in one reflux was about 1,000 ml.
The recovery rate of nuts obtained from the extracted oil was 28.5%, and the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted oil was 0.02%.

Comparative Example 1
78.5 g of the same crushed nuts as in Example 1 were weighed into a cylindrical filter paper for Soxhlet extraction, and the solvent was refluxed with a Soxhlet extractor using primary n-hexane (purity 99.0%) at an evaporation temperature of 80 ° C. The extractor was refluxed until the inside of the extractor was filled with the refluxing solvent 5 times to extract the oil and fat.
The amount of solvent used in one reflux was about 1,000 ml.
The extraction oil obtained had a nut recovery rate of 51.7% and the isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content in the extracted oil was 3.66%.

Table 1 shows the analysis results of the shea butter extract oils of Examples 1 to 3 and Comparative Example 1. In addition, the iodine value (IV) and the acid value (AV) were measured based on “The Japan Oil Chemists' Society Standard Oil Analysis Method”. The isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) and triglyceride (TG) content were analyzed by the following high performance liquid gel chromatography (GPC).
Detector: Differential refractive index detector, Solvent: Special grade tetrahydrofuran, Column temperature: 40 ° C., Flow rate: 1 ml / min, Column used: Showa Denko KF-801 × 1, KF-802 × 2

実施例１〜３の極性有機溶剤を用いて抽出したシア脂はいずれもイソプレン系不鹸化物含量（ＩＵＳＭ）が比較例１との対比で、十分低減されていた。実施例３のエチルアルコールでの抽出では、イソプレン系不鹸化物含量（ＩＵＳＭ）の低減は非常に優れていたが、油脂の溶解度が低いためか、油脂の回収率が低いものであった。<Table-1>

All the shea fats extracted using the polar organic solvents of Examples 1 to 3 had a sufficiently reduced isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) as compared with Comparative Example 1. In the extraction with ethyl alcohol in Example 3, the reduction of the isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) was very excellent, but the oil / fat recovery rate was low due to low solubility of the oil / fat.

Example 4 50 g of the pulverized nut of Example 1 was placed in a 1-liter eggplant flask for an evaporator, and 197.5 g (250 ml) of primary acetone (purity 99.0%, moisture 0.02%) was added.
While controlling the temperature at 50 ° C., the eggplant flask was stirred at a low speed for 1 hour to extract oils and fats. The solvent was removed using an evaporator to obtain an extracted oil. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 39.0%.

Example 5 Oil was extracted in the same manner as in Example 4 using primary acetone adjusted to 1.8% moisture instead of primary acetone with 0.02% moisture in Example 4 to obtain an extracted oil. It was. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 40.8%.

Example 6 Oil and fat were extracted in the same manner as in Example 4 using primary acetone adjusted to 2.6% moisture instead of primary acetone having 0.02% moisture in Example 4 to obtain an extracted oil. It was. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 38.5%.

Example 7 Oil and fat were extracted in the same manner as Example 4 using primary acetone adjusted to moisture 3.4% instead of primary acetone with moisture 0.02% in Example 4 to obtain an extracted oil. It was. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 36.7%.

Example 8 Using the primary acetone adjusted to the moisture of 1.8% of Example 5, the oil and fat extraction operation of Example 4 was repeated four times, and the extracted oil was obtained by combining the four extracted oils. . The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 49.1%. The isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) in the extracted oil was 0.12%.

Comparative Example 2 Oil and fat were extracted in the same manner as in Example 4 using primary n-hexane (purity 99.0%) instead of primary acetone having a moisture content of 0.02% in Example 4, and the extracted oil was Obtained. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 40.1%.

Comparative Example 3 The extraction operation of Comparative Example 2 was repeated 4 times, and the extracted oil was combined 4 times to obtain an extracted oil. The recovery ratio of the extracted oil to nuts was 47.1%. The isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) in the extracted oil was 3.19%.

Table 2 shows test results of Examples 4 to 8 and Comparative Examples 2 to 3. The residual oil content in the residue in Table-2 is the residual oil content in comparison with Comparative Example 1, assuming that the residual oil content is zero in the extraction of Comparative Example 1.
The isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) content was analyzed by high performance liquid gel chromatography (GPC) as described above.
<Table-2>

  In comparison between Examples 4 to 8, when the water content in acetone exceeded 3% as in Example 7, the extraction efficiency of fats and oils tended to decrease. In Examples 4 to 6, as compared with Comparative Example 2, the oil and fat extraction efficiency was also approximately similar. In comparison between Example 8 and Comparative Example 3, Example 8 was excellent in the extraction efficiency of fats and oils, and the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted oil was extremely low.

Example 9 50 g of the pulverized nut of Example 1 was packed into a cylindrical glass column having an inner diameter of 20 mm and filled with glass wool at the bottom, and glass wool was packed at the top. In this glass column, 395 g (500 ml) primary acetone (purity 99.0%, moisture 0.02%) was kept at 50 ° C., and the pulverized nuts in the glass column were immersed in the extraction solvent. For 200 minutes at a flow rate of 10 ml / min. After completion of the reflux, the solvent was removed to obtain an extracted oil. The recovery rate of the extracted oil to nuts is 48.0% (the residual oil content in the nut residue is 7.1%), the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted oil is 0.22%, and the extraction efficiency and isoprene-based unsaponification The product content was also good.

Example 10 20 parts of the shea fat (IV 54.0, AV 25.6, ISM 0.12%) obtained in Example 8 was dissolved in 80 parts of primary acetone (99.0% purity, water 0.02%). After holding at 15 ° C. for 60 minutes with stirring, the crystallized crystal part was separated by filtration to obtain a shea fat hard part in a yield of 48.8%. The obtained shea fat hard part was subjected to alkali deoxidation, water washing, decolorization, and deodorization as usual to obtain a purified shea fat hard part. The refined shea fat hard part had an IV of 37.2 and an isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) of 0.79%.
47 parts of the purified shea fat hard part thus obtained and 53 parts of the purified palm oil middle melting point (IV 34.5, melting point 32.0 ° C.) were blended to obtain CBE-A for chocolate.

Reference Example 1 25 parts of the shea fat (IV 59.9, AV 16.8, ISM 3.19%) obtained in Comparative Example 3 was dissolved in 75 parts of primary acetone (99.0% purity, water 0.02%). The mixture was held at 35 ° C. for 30 minutes with strong stirring, then held at the same temperature for 2 hours, and then filtered to obtain a first-stage crystal part and a first-stage filtrate part. The obtained first-stage filtrate was further cooled and held at 15 ° C. with stirring for 60 minutes, and then the crystallized crystal was separated by filtration to give a shea fat hard part of 47.0% as a second-stage crystal. The yield was obtained. The obtained shea fat hard part was subjected to alkali deoxidation, water washing, decolorization, and deodorization as usual to obtain a purified shea fat hard part. The refined shea fat hard part had an IV of 37.5 and an isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) content of 0.70%.
47 parts of the purified shea fat hard part thus obtained and 53 parts of purified palm oil middle melting point (IV 34.5, melting point 32.0 ° C.) were blended to obtain CBE-B for chocolate.

Example 11 To 98.8 parts of the shea fat hard part obtained in Example 10, 1.2 parts of the first-stage crystal part of Reference Example 1 were mixed, and subjected to alkali deoxidation, water washing, decolorization, and deodorization as usual. The refined shea fat hard part was obtained.
The refined shea fat hard part had an IV of 38.3 and an isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) content of 2.0%.
47 parts of the refined shea fat hard part thus obtained and 53 parts of the purified palm oil middle melting point part (IV 34.5, melting point 32.0 ° C.) were blended to obtain CBE-C for chocolate.

Table 3 shows the analysis results of the purified shea fat hard part and the CBE for chocolate prepared in Example 10, Reference Example 1 and Example 11. The isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter content (IUSM) content was analyzed by high performance liquid gel chromatography (GPC) as described above.
<Table-3>

  Using each CBE prepared in Example 10, Reference Example 1 and Example 11, cacao mass 24 parts, sugar 37.6 parts, whole milk powder 12 parts, cocoa butter 6.4 parts, CBE 20 parts, lecithin 0. With 5 parts of formulation, prepare a chocolate dough as usual, cool the chocolate dough to 25 ° C while stirring, reheat to 28 ° C, perform tempering, cast and cool and solidify 20 mm x 60 mm A plate-shaped chocolate of × 5 mm was made as a prototype. Each plate-shaped chocolate was aged at 20 ° C. for 7 days, and then the chocolate snapping properties, mouth melting, and texture were evaluated. The snapping property was evaluated by folding a plate-shaped chocolate by hand at 20 ° C., and the melting and texture of the mouth were subjected to sensory evaluation.

実施例１０は、従来のｎ−ヘキサン抽出油からイソプレン系不鹸化物の除去処理を行ったうえでさらに分別してシア脂硬質部を得た参考例１と、ほぼ同等の品質のチョコレートであった。一方、シア脂硬質部中のイソプレン系不鹸化物含量が２．０％とやや高い実施例１１ではチョコレートの口溶けにややもたつきがあり、やや油っぽい食感であった。Table 4 shows the evaluation results of the chocolates manufactured using each CBE prepared in Example 10, Reference Example 1 and Example 11.
<Table-4>

Example 10 was chocolate having substantially the same quality as that of Reference Example 1 in which the isoprene-based unsaponified product was removed from the conventional n-hexane extract oil and further fractionated to obtain a shea fat hard part. . On the other hand, in Example 11 in which the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the shea fat hard part was slightly high at 2.0%, the melting of the chocolate had a slight tingling, and the texture was slightly oily.

  The present invention relates to a method for extracting shea fat from a shea nut using a polar organic solvent, and relates to a method for extracting shea fat in which the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted oil is reduced.

Claims (6)

A method for extracting shea butter, characterized in that shea butter is extracted from shea nuts using a polar organic solvent. 2. The extraction method according to claim 1, wherein the polar organic solvent is an organic solvent belonging to ketones or lower alcohols. The extraction method according to claim 2, wherein the polar organic solvent is acetone. The extraction method according to claim 2, wherein the polar organic solvent is isopropanol. The extraction method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein shea fat is extracted from shea nuts by countercurrent extraction. The extraction method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the content of isoprene-based unsaponifiable matter in the extracted shea fat is 1% by weight or less.