960 959. Women's Gold (3/5)

Chapter 960 959. Women's Gold (35)

Lilikas waved to Apodu, who was lighting a fire and cooking. He said a few words in Zulu, and Apodu nodded silently, and walked forward quickly.

Sophie looked at the lion hunter and asked in a tentative tone: "What are they looking for? Women's gold? Is this a kind of, um, a kind of herbal medicine?"

She is a professional Western medicine practitioner, so she is no stranger to herbal medicine. Western medicine is not only good at chemical synthesis, but also good at extracting medicinal ingredients from plants.

The lion hunter pulled out a cigar and said as he cut it: "Yes, women's gold, the name should be shea? It's a good thing."

Sophie asked worriedly: "Is it reliable? Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your traditional medicine, it's just that it involves my fiancé, I have to be careful."

The lion hunter lit his cigar and exhaled the smoke. He smiled and said, "I understand, I understand. Don't worry, it's very reliable. I've seen a lot of UV poisoning, and shea butter can fix it in a few minutes."

Sophie asked in surprise, "So fast?"

The lion hunter nodded and did not speak again, but put on a posture of waiting to speak with facts.

Li Du asked: "What is this woman's gold, that is, shea butter? I don't know much about it."

He trusted Sophie's expertise more in his heart, and he didn't really want to try to use something he hadn't heard of to treat skin diseases. What if it got worse?

In the final analysis, Mr. Li is not a fierce man who is not afraid of death. With his worth, and with the ability of little flying insects, who would not be afraid of death?

But he couldn't directly decline the kindness of the lion hunter, this black buddy is quite domineering.

The lion hunter said: "Don't worry, this thing is definitely useful. It is actually a kind of food, rich in fat. It is relatively rare in South Africa, and it is more common in some countries in North Africa."

Knowing Li Du and Sophie's concerns, he introduced this plant in detail.

It is not the shea butter that really protects Li Du's skin, but the fruit of the shea butter.

Like the baobab tree, this kind of tree can grow very tall. Normally, it can grow up to 15 meters high. The diameter of the trunk can exceed one meter. The life span is about 200 to 300 years.

Because of their longevity and tallness, they are worshiped as sacred trees in some tribes in North Africa.

Shea can grow fruit with seeds inside, they bloom from December to April next year, and the fruit ripens from May to September, and then there will be a large seed inside.

The flesh of the fruit is edible, and the seeds can be peeled to extract the oil. These oils are often used to make shea butter, a skin care product that European nobles used to love.

There are relatively few shea trees in South Africa. There are related legends among the Zulu people, who believe that shea butter trees are guarded by an invisible and magical power, which can avoid evil and exorcise evil spirits, so the life cycle can last for hundreds of years.

They encountered some tall trees on the road, that is, shea butter. At that time, they thought it was unnecessary, so the lion hunter and others did not go to pick the shea butter. Now that Li Du had skin problems, Abodu and Abodu decided to go back to pick the fruit.

The reason why shea butter nuts were not picked at that time was because there were few shea butter trees in South Africa, and the local tribes prohibited people from picking shea butter fruits at will, unless it was really necessary.

After listening to the lion hunter's introduction, Li Du felt relieved.

He had a new question and asked, "Since there are relatively few shea trees in South Africa, why not transplant some? Is the climate and soil not suitable for their growth?"

The lion hunter nodded: "There is a reason for this, but the more reason is that the people in the tribe are too stupid to know how to cultivate this kind of tree."

Having said that, he showed a contemptuous and mocking expression again.

Li Du was also convinced. He felt that the lion hunter seemed to look down on his people. This guy himself had racial discrimination against black people.

Another reason why there is no large-scale cultivation of shea butter in South Africa is that there is a legend on the African continent that only women can approach shea butter, not men.

If there is shea butter in the tribe, it depends on women to plant and cultivate it, and it also depends on women to extract shea butter.

Because the production of shea butter is a unique business for African women, and this raw material is a skin care treasure for women, shea butter is called "women's gold" locally.

This legend has not been taken seriously in modern times, and men will also approach this plant. For example, Abodu and his wife went to pick shea nuts.

The two sides were resting here, and Apodu and Abodu hurried back with some fruits.

Back at the camp, the two of them began extracting the oil by hand.

Li Du looked over curiously, and found that these shea nuts were oval in shape, ranging in length from five to eight centimeters.

Two black men cut open the fruit with a small knife, peeled off the yellow-white flesh and collected it, revealing the seeds inside.

This thing is similar to a lychee, the seeds are very big, the largest length is 5 cm, and the width is 4 cm, which is already as big as the smaller fruit.

Sophie, Brother Wolf and others came up to help, they had to speed up.

The first step is to peel off the outer shell of the fruit core, which usually needs to be dried in the sun and then crushed with a stone or a small hammer to remove the seeds inside.

There is no time now, so Brother Wolf and Big Ivan cut the fruit core into four pieces with a sharp knife, and then took out the seeds inside.

The next step is to crush the seeds. Lilikas carried a stone bowl with him. He put the seeds and some herbs in and pounded them hard with a small stone mortar.

The shea nut seeds are very strong, and he smashed them for a while without crushing them. Godzilla pushed him away and started to do it himself.

The stone bowl that Lilikas needed to put on the ground was held in his hand, and he chiseled it with the stone mortar in the other hand, crushing the seeds in a short time.

In this way, Lilikas went to prepare for the next link. He heated up an iron pot, poured the mashed shea nut seeds into it, stirred quickly and waited for the shea butter to be boiled out.

Because the iron pot itself has been burned red, under the high temperature, when the shea nut seeds are put into the pot, some smoke will be generated inside.

The lion hunter told Li Du that the best shea butter has a slightly smoky smell because the naturally processed shea seeds produce smoke.

With high temperature and stirring, the seeds of shea butter gradually melted. Seeing this, Lilikas poured some transparent mucus into it and boiled it over high fire.

Gradually, the shea seeds mixed with the mucilage turned into a creamy paste, which gradually divided into layers, the top layer was ivory white, the bottom was beige, and the bottom was golden yellow.

After simmering for an hour, the shea butter in this pot was finally boiled, and after Lilikas poured it out and put it in a cool shade, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, wait, woman's gold. "

Li Du squatted aside and observed for a while. At this time, the shea butter was not the same as ordinary liquid vegetable oil.

It is in a semi-solid state at room temperature, a bit like cream, with a little smoke smell, still divided into three colors, and gradually solidified.