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Shea Provenance Study: Documenting Biochemical Diversity
Through the ProKarité project, ICRAF is currently organizing a limited representative sampling of shea populations across Africa, in order to supplement our existing Vitellaria Database. Though the commercial importance of the shea tree has increased dramatically over the past decade, key questions of significant scientific import persist, including the distinction between the two sub-species paradoxa and nilotica, (which are thought to diverge somewhere between Nigeria and Sudan), and corresponding distinctions between product and commercial applications of populations across the range of the tree. One of the greatest obstacles currently facing the shea subsector – particularly in Nigeria – is the lack of ‘traceability’ in supply – that is, the inability of buyers to be certain of product origin and a lack of understanding as to the chemical attributes of specific origins to serve different product and market applications. Defining provenances: disaggregating chemical attributes of populations Having inherited the technical results of a previous EC-funded project of which ICRAF was one of 16 partners, including an extensive data set of chemical analyses of shea of fruit, shea kernel and shea butter developed under the previous project, and having taken on as a post-doctorate researcher Dr. Steve Maranz, who initiated development of a data set on chemical parameters of Vitellaria, and has published the key papers on this subject I academic journals (see publication list on the Vitellaria Database homepage). ICRAF is currently working to elaborate and regionalize these results into the first comprehensive database and resource map describing the geographic and chemical parameters of an indigenous species of great nutritional, social and economic relevance. The countries to be covered during the coming season include Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan. As such, we are seeking formal collaborative and scientific linkages with national research institutions and other governmental and non-governmental bodies. Analytical results will be shared with all partners in full detail, and summaries will be made freely accessible online. It is hoped that this work will help to define and promote the value of a unique indigenous resource, for the benefit of rural populations living with the tree across Africa.
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