Lipex® Illipesoft

Borneo Butter for
Natural Body Care
News!
Lipex®
Illipesoft
stable illipe butter for body butter and other skin care applications
soft and dry skin feel with high emolliency
sustainable ingredient from the rainforests of Borneo
Lipex® Illipesoft is a novel improved illipe (shorea)
butter with soft consistency and simple crystallisation
behaviour. It is especially suited for emulsified and
anhydrous body butters due to its excellent moisturising properties.
shelflife, even when used at high levels in the formulation. Typical levels in a skin care formulation would
be up to 5 %.
Stable even at high levels
in skin care formulations
Lipex Illipesoft differs from traditional Illipe butter in that the melting and crystallisation behaviour
has been optimised to suit the needs of the cosmetic
industry. Traditional Illipe butter is a hard, brittle
solid melting close to body temperature while Lipex®
Illipesoft has a higher melting point (49 °C) but is
softer at room temperature, see figure to the right.
The crystallisation and stabilisation into the preferred beta crystal form is also more rapid. This gives
formulations made with Lipex® Illipesoft a longer
100
Solid fat content (%)
80
60
®
40
20
0
10
20
30
40
50
Temperature (°C)
Traditional Illipe Butter
Lipex® Illipesoft
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Sustainable Borneo Butter for
Natural skin care
Illipe butter (INCI: Shorea Stenoptera Seed
Butter) originates in the tropical rainforests of SouthEast Asia. The trees grow by the river banks and in
water-logged swamps in Borneo at altitudes up to
800 meters. The climatic conditions are typical for
tropical rainforests – high rainfall, 4000-5000 mm/
year, temperature 28-35 °C and relative humidity 8090 %. The tall trees (20-40 m) flower in SeptemberNovember after the dry season, the fruits ripening
through January-March. The kernel weighing up
to 45 grams is enclosed by five leaves that harden
as the fruit ripens and act as a wing to assist in the
spreading of the seed around the parent tree.
The kernels are collected by the aboriginal inhabitants of the rainforests (Dayaks). The families
go up the rivers in their longboats to the territories
traditionally belonging to them. The ground beneath
the trees that will yield a good harvest is cleared to
make it easier to pick the fallen kernels and to scare
away snakes and other dangerous animals. Kernels
can also be collected from the rivers using bamboo
or rattan nets or baskets. The wings are removed
from the kernels which as split open and sun-dried
to reduce the water content.
Composition of Illipe butter
The illipe butter is characterised by a very simple
fatty acid composition, oleic, stearic and palmitic
acid making up more than 95 % of the fatty acid
composition. Stearic acid dominates (45 %), followed by oleic acid (35 %) and palmitic acid (17 %).
Illipe butter has a fairly high amount of unsaponifiable matter (1.5 %), dominated by triterpene alcohols
and phytosterols. The content of tocopherols (approximately 200 ppm) is typical for a predominantly
saturated vegetable oil.
Stearic acid
45 %
Oleic acid
35 %
Palmitic acid
17 %
Unsaponifiables
1.5 %
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