Bio Mangobutter
What is mango butter?
Mango butter is extracted from the kernels of the mango fruit, which grows on trees native to South Asia but now cultivated in tropical regions worldwide. Although we call it mango butter, it is technically a fat that remains semi-solid at room temperature due to its unique fatty acid composition. These fatty acids are one of the things that make mango butter so good for your skin. The fatty acids maintain the hydrolipidic film that your skin produces naturally. The hydrolipidic film is a thin layer of sebum, fat and water on the surface of your skin whose job it is to prevent harmful bacteria from entering your pores. Mango butter also contains emollients which help maintain the suppleness and elasticity of your skin, while the antioxidants protect your skin from the damage caused by free-radicals (more about antioxidants here)
Mango butter sustainability:
Pros:
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It is made out of mango kernels which would otherwise be a waste product of mango production, making mango butter production a form of upcycling.
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Mango trees live for 40-100 years making mango farming less disturbing to the soil and to the local wildlife compared to annual crops
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Mango trees remove carbon from the air and store it in their wood.
Cons:
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Mango farming requires a lot of irrigation, which can put strain on water resources
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Extraction of the mango butter from the kernels at industrial scales is done using a chemical called hexane. Although no hexane is left in the final product, it is derived from petroleum which is non-renewable. Additionally this process is energy-intensive.
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Refining mango butter is energy-intensive.
How to improve?
Using cold-pressed and unrefined mango butter would make my products much more sustainable. Cold-pressed means that the mango butter is extracted using simple physical processes, rather than hexane. This process requires little energy and no chemicals.Unrefined mango butter also involves much lower energy use to produce, and additionally leaves many more beneficial compounds in the mango butter compared to when it is refined. However unrefined mango butter also has its own smell which would have an impact on my products. I plan to experiment with using unrefined mango butter and I will search for cold-pressed, organic mango butter.
I have sourced my mango butter from Primabene and the batch I used in my products is from India.
You’ll find mango butter in the following products:
This image was produced using AI.
