Lilikas waved to Abdo, who was cooking by the fire. He said a few words in Zulu, and Abdo nodded silently and walked quickly forward.
Sophie looked at the lion hunter and asked in a tentative tone, "What are they looking for? Women's gold? Is this a, um, herb? "
She was trained in Western medicine, so she was no stranger to herbs. Western medicine was not only good at chemical synthesis, but also at extracting medicinal ingredients from plants.
The lion hunter took out a cigar, cut it, and said, "Yes, women's gold, the name should be shea wood. This is good stuff. "
Sophie asked worriedly, "Is it reliable? Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your traditional medicine, but it involves my fiancé, so I have to be careful. "
The lion hunter lit the cigar and blew out smoke. He smiled and said, "I know, I know. Don't worry, it's very reliable. I've seen a lot of ultraviolet poisoning. Shea wood can cure it in a few minutes."
Sophie was surprised. "So fast?"
The lion hunter nodded and did not speak again, but waited for the facts to speak.
Li Du asked, "What is shea wood, this woman's gold? I don't know much about it. "
He trusted Sophie's expertise more and did not want to try to use something he had never heard of to treat a skin disease. What if it got worse?
After all, Mr. Li was not a fierce man who was not afraid of death. With his status and the ability of the little bug, who would not be afraid of death?
But he could not directly refuse the lion hunter's kindness. This black man was quite overbearing.
The lion hunter said, "Don't worry, this thing is absolutely useful. It is actually a kind of food, rich in oil, relatively rare in South Africa, more common in some North African countries."
He knew Li Du and Sophie's concerns, so he introduced the plant in detail.
What really protected Li Du's skin was not the shea wood, but the fruit of the shea wood.
This tree, like the baobab tree, could grow very tall, normally up to 15 meters high, with a trunk diameter of more than one meter, and a lifespan of about 200 to 300 years.
Because of its longevity and height, it was worshipped as a sacred tree in some North African tribes.
Shea trees can bear fruit with seeds inside. They bloom from December to April of the next year. The fruit ripens from May to September, and then there is a big seed inside.
The flesh of the fruit was edible, and the seeds could be peeled and squeezed for oil. The oil was often used to make Cerise, a skincare product once favored by European nobles.
There were relatively few shea trees in South Africa. The Zulu people had a legend that the shea tree was protected by an invisible, magical force that could ward off evil, so its lifespan could be as long as hundreds of years.
They had encountered some tall trees along the way, which were shea trees. At that time, they did not think it was necessary, so Lion Hunter and the others did not pick the shea fruits. Now that Li Du's skin was having problems, Abdo and Li Du decided to go back and pick the fruit.
The reason why he didn't pick the shea fruit at that time was because there were very few shea trees in South Africa. The local tribes forbade people from picking the fruits of the shea tree unless there was a real need.
After listening to the lion hunter's introduction, Li Du was relieved.
He had a new question and said, "Since there are fewer shea trees in South Africa, why not transplant some? Is the climate and soil not suitable for their growth? "
Lion Hunter nodded. "There is a reason, but more importantly, the people in the tribe are too stupid to know how to cultivate this kind of tree."
Speaking of this, he showed a contemptuous and sarcastic expression again.
Li Du was also convinced. He felt that Lion Hunter seemed to look down on his own people. This guy himself was racist against black people.
There was another reason why South Africa did not cultivate shea trees on a large scale. There was a legend on the African continent that only women could get close to shea trees, not men.
If there were shea trees in the tribe, it was all up to women to cultivate them, and it was up to women to extract the shea butter.
Since the production of shea butter was unique to African women, and the raw material was a skin care treasure for women, shea butter was locally known as "women's gold."
This legend was no longer taken seriously in modern times, and men would also get close to the plant. For example, Abdo and Li Du went to pick the shea butter.
While they were resting, Abdo and Li Du hurried back with some fruit.
Back at the camp, the two began to extract the oil by hand.
Li Du looked curiously at the shea butter, which was oval in shape and five to eight centimeters long.
Two black men cut the fruit with a knife, peeled off the yellowish-white flesh and collected it, revealing the seeds inside.
It was similar to a lychee, with large seeds, the largest of which was five centimeters long and four centimeters wide, which was as big as a smaller fruit.
Sophie, Brother Wolf, and the others came up to help. They had to hurry.
The first step was to peel off the shell of the core, which usually needed to be dried and then broken with a stone or a small hammer to pull out the seeds.
There was no time now, so Brother Wolf and Big Ivan cut the core into four pieces with a sharp knife and then removed the seeds.
Next was to mash the seeds. Lilikas carried a stone bowl with him. He put the seeds and some herbs in it and pounded it hard with a small stone mortar.
The seeds of the shea butter were very strong, and after a while, they were not crushed. Godzilla pushed him away and did it himself.
Lilikas held the stone bowl that he needed to put on the ground in one hand, and with the stone mortar in the other, he began to chisel, and soon the seeds were crushed.
In this way, Lilikas went to prepare for the next step. He heated an iron pot, poured the crushed shea butter into it, and stirred it quickly, waiting for the shea butter to come out.
Because the pot itself was already red hot, under the high temperature, the shea butter seeds produced some smoke when they fell into the pot.
Lion Hunter told Li Du that the best shea butter had a slight smoky smell because of the smoke produced by the naturally processed shea butter seeds.
The high temperature and stirring gradually melted the shea butter seeds. Seeing this, Lilikas poured some transparent mucus into it and boiled it over a high fire.
Gradually, the shea butter mixed with the mucus turned into a cream-colored paste, which gradually divided into two layers: the top layer was ivory white, the bottom was beige, and the bottom was golden.
After boiling for a full hour, the pot of shea butter was finally ready. Lilikas poured it out and put it in the cool shade. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Well, wait for it, women's gold."
Li Du squatted next to it and observed that the shea butter was not the same as the usual liquid vegetable oil.
It was semi-solid at room temperature, a bit like cream, had a smoky smell, was still divided into three colors, and gradually solidified.
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