A golden-yellow West African tree butter, cousin to shea, pressed from the seeds of the tallow tree — rich, distinctive, used in cooking and skin care across the Dahomey region.
Kpangnan is a regional specialty of Benin and Togo — Yoruba and Fon territory — and a living example of West African seed-fat knowledge largely unknown in the diaspora, worth recovering alongside shea and red palm oil.
Kpangnan butter carries a yellow color from its carotenoid content and is rich in oleic acid (monounsaturated) along with stabilizing stearic acid, vitamin E, and plant sterols. Its fatty-acid balance makes it softer and more spreadable than shea, with anti-inflammatory and skin-barrier-supporting properties prized in traditional West African dermatology — for eczema, dry skin, and wound care, all conditions that disproportionately burden Black skin. As a culinary fat it is a whole, minimally processed tree butter, the kind of ancestral fat severed when industrial oils colonized West African and diaspora kitchens.
Hand-extracted by roasting, pounding, and boiling the seeds, then skimming the butter. Culinary grade used like shea for cooking and frying; cosmetic grade for skin and hair. Store cool.
Free, no account needed to ask.