The baobab fruits have long been used to produce baobab juice and the seeds have always been thrown away. Because of many years of doing that, The Gambia today is blessed with many magnificent trees sprinkled all around its territory.

Bearing fruits twice a year, the baobab fruits are plentiful, sustainable and popular, and yet the seeds are unutilised. These two facts convinced the team behind the Khadija baobab oil company to start with the creation of the magical oil. 

Baobab seeds are the only ingredient of crystal clear baobab oil. However, the newly established business does now provide additional income to the ladies that would otherwise throw away the seeds. Now, they can get double income from both the seeds and selling the juice. Furthermore, it also helps the drivers have some extra business when bringing the baobab seeds from 5 villages around Brikama to the production site in Sanchaba. 

Mr. Pa Modou, the driver

Baobab Oil project helped me so much as a villager here with increased income because, before this company came, we used to throw the seeds away after using it for juice. We didn’t know its use, but now I can buy it on behalf of the company from the women here and put it into 50 kg bags to transport it to the company. This business is now helping with more income to take care of my children welfare.

Mrs. Alimatou, baobab juice seller

We used to make only baobab juice to make ice for sale and throw away the seeds, but now, we can make both juice and sell the seeds to Khadija Baobab Oil Company to make double income from the baobab.

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Khadija Baobab oil is made out of only one ingredient: the baobab seed. It is 100% natural with no artificial substances added to it.

The baobab oil is liquid gold with magical healing powers. High in linoleic and oleic acids, which are scientifically proven to have anti-ageing properties, reduce scars, sunburn and acne. It is also packed with Omega 3,6 and 9 Fatty acids and vitamins A, D, E and F, all of which are shown to aid maintenance of youthful skin. And it is a perfect moisturiser for your skin and hair. It has an anti-ageing effect and helps heal acne, sunburns, stretch marks, scars. It is also an ideal insect repellent.

As it is used more and more in The Gambia, many of its customers have found it to ease the irritation of insect bites and some have found it to be an effective repellant. As it is 100% natural, it also soaks straight into the skin and does not leave a sticky residue.

Alkali Jarju, a member of the Khadija Baobab’s Oil team, explained the whole process of magic oil creation. After buying bags of cleaned and dried seeds from the villages, they would gradually add them to the pressing machine, which takes six hours to press 2 to 3 bags of seeds to fill just 5 litres of oil. Together with golden drops of oil, a byproduct is gathered, a compressed husk of the baobab seeds, which is a perfect animal feed. It is available for sale, yet part of it is always donated to The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust since donkeys, horses, goats and sheep are the primary consumers. Other residues from the filtered oil can be used to fertilise plants.

 After collecting the oil from the pressing machine, it is filtered with a 12-layers filtering machine to remove any particles thicker than 1 micron (equal to 1/1,000 of a millimetre) so that oil becomes crystal clear. The last part of the process is measuring, bottling and branding for sale.

Baobab oil is available at Top Shop in Senegambia, Kombo Beach Hotel and also available for wholesale at Khadija Baobab Oil. 

You can also contact them to sell baobab seeds or purchase by-products (animal feed, plant fertiliser).