959.Woman's Gold (3/5)

Ririkas beckoned to Apodu, who was cooking on the fire, and he said a few words in Zulu, who nodded silently and walked briskly forward.

Sophie looked at the lion hunter and asked in a tentative tone, "What are they looking for?woman's gold??'s this's, well, a herb?"

She is a native of Western medicine and is no stranger to herbal medicine, which is not only good at chemical synthesis, but also good at extracting medicinal ingredients from vegetation.

The lion hunter took out a cigar and said as he cut it, "Yes, a woman's gold, the name should be shea? ”

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

The lion hunter lit his cigar and spit out a cigarette, and he smiled: "I know I understand, you can rest assured, it is very reliable, I have seen a lot of ultraviolet poisoning, and shea wood can get it in a few minutes." ”

Sophie was surprised, "So fast?"

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

Li Du asked, "What is this kind of woman's gold, that is, shea wood? I don't know much about this thing." ”

He trusted Sophie's professionalism more in his heart, and didn't really want to try to use something he hadn't heard of to treat a skin disease, what if it worsened?

After all, Mr. Li is not a fierce man who is not afraid of death, and at his value, plus there is an ability like a small flying insect, who will not be afraid of death?

But it's not good for him to directly decline the kindness of the lion hunter, this black guy has a very domineering personality.

"Rest assured, this thing is absolutely useful, it is actually a food, rich in oil, which is relatively rare in South Africa, and more abundant in some countries in North Africa," said the lion hunter. ”

He knew that Li Du and Sophie were worried, so he introduced the plant in detail.

What really protects Li Du's skin is not shea wood, but the fruit of shea wood.

Like the baobab tree, this tree grows very tall, normally up to 15 meters tall, with a trunk diameter of more than one meter and a lifespan of about 200 to 300 years.

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

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

The flesh is edible, and the seeds can be shelled to squeeze the oil, which is often used to make sherab, a skincare product that was once loved by the European aristocracy.

South Africa has relatively few shea wood, and the Zulu people have a legend that the shea wood is guarded by an invisible and magical power that can ward off evil spirits, so the life cycle can be as long as several hundred years.

They had encountered some tall trees on the way, that is, shea wood, and they felt that it was not necessary at that time, so the lion hunter and the others did not go to pick the shea fruit, and now Li Du had a skin problem, and Apodu and the others decided to go back to pick the fruit.

The reason why the shea was not picked at that time was because of the lack of shea wood in South Africa, and the local tribe forbade people to pick the shea wood at will unless there was a real need.

After listening to the introduction of the lion hunter, Li Du was relieved.

He had a new question: "Since there are fewer shea trees in South Africa, why not transplant some? Is the climate and soil not suitable for them to grow?"

The lion hunter nodded, "There is a reason for this, but more often than not, the people in the tribe are too stupid to know how to cultivate this kind of tree. ”

At this point, he again showed a look of disdain and mockery.

Li Du was also convinced, he felt that the lion hunters seemed to look down on their own people, and this guy himself had racial discrimination against black people.

There is also a reason why shea wood is not cultivated on a large scale in South Africa, and that is that there is a legend on the African continent that only women can get close to shea, not men.

If there is shea wood in the tribe, it is all up to women to plant and cultivate, and it is all up to women to extract shea butter.

Because the production of shea butter is unique to African women, and this raw material is a treasure for women's skincare, shea butter is known locally as "women's gold".

This legend is no longer taken seriously in modern times, and men will approach this plant, such as Apodo and his wife who go to pick shea butter.

The two sides rested here, and Apodo and the two hurried back with some fruits.

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

Li Du looked at it curiously, and these shea butters were oval-shaped, ranging from five to eight centimeters long.

Two black men cut open the fruit with a knife and sliced off the yellowish-white flesh to collect it, revealing the seeds inside.

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

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

The first is to open the shell of the pit, which generally needs to be dried in the sun and then crushed with a stone or small hammer to remove the seeds inside.

Now that there was no time, Brother Wolf and Big Ivan used a quick knife to cut the core of the fruit into four pieces, and then took out the seeds inside.

The next step was to mash the seeds, and Riricas carried a stone bowl with him, in which he put the seeds and some herbs, and pounded them vigorously with a small stone mortar.

The shea seeds were very strong, and he pounded them for a while before they were crushed, and Godzilla pushed him away and did it himself.

The stone bowl that Ririkas needed to put on the ground was held in his hand, and in the other hand he held the stone mortar and chiseled it up, and it didn't take long to crush the seed.

In this way, Riricas went to prepare for the next part, he burned an iron pot, poured the rotten shea seeds into it, and stirred quickly until the shea butter boiled out.

Because the iron pot itself has been burned red, under the high temperature, some smoke is produced in the shea butter seeds as soon as they are out of the pot.

The lion hunter told Li Du that the best shea butter has a slight smoke smell because naturally processed shea butter produces smoke.

The seeds of the shea butter gradually melted after the heat was stirred, and Ririkas poured some transparent mucilage into it and boiled it over high heat.

Gradually, the shea butter seeds become a creamy paste mixed with mucilage, and then gradually divide into ivory at the top, beige at the bottom, and golden yellow at the bottom.

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

Li Du squatted next to him and observed, at this time, the shea butter was not the same as the general liquid vegetable oil.

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

Vertex Pen Qu Ge Reading Website: m.