Shea Butter or Butyrospermum Parkii: What Goes on the CNF

You've bought shea butter from three different suppliers and gotten three different spec sheets. One says "Shea Butter," one says "Butyrospermum Parkii Butter," and one just says "Karite Butter." All three are the same ingredient. Only one form belongs on your Cosmetic Notification Form.

The INCI name is Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Butter

The standardized INCI designation for shea butter is built on the plant's Latin binomial, Butyrospermum parkii, followed by the part used. Depending on the nomenclature source you're working from, you may see it written as "Butyrospermum Parkii Butter" or with the common name trailing in parentheses. What matters for a filing is that the Latin genus and species form is what the notification system expects for botanical ingredients, not the everyday retail name.

This is true across most plant-derived materials. Sunflower oil becomes Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil. Coconut oil becomes Cocos nucifera (Coconut) Oil. Shea butter follows the same pattern: genus, species, plant part, then the physical form (oil, butter, extract, powder).

Why the Latin form and not "shea butter"

INCI exists so that one naming system works across languages and jurisdictions. "Shea butter" is an English common name. A francophone label might say "beurre de karité." A German one might say something else entirely. Butyrospermum parkii is the same regardless of what language surrounds it on the package. That consistency is exactly why a notification system built for cross-border review leans on the Latin binomial as the anchor and treats the common name as decoration.

Practically, this means:

• Your ingredient declaration on the CNF should use the INCI form, typically written as Butyrospermum Parkii Butter.
• The common name "Shea Butter" can still appear on your retail label, usually in parentheses after the INCI name, which is standard practice for consumer-facing labels.
• Supplier documentation that only says "Shea Butter" needs to be translated to the INCI form before you file. Most reputable suppliers will provide this in their certificate of analysis or SDS, but not all do.

Where the confusion actually causes problems

The mix-ups I see most often aren't about knowing shea butter has a Latin name. Makers usually know that much. The problems show up in three specific spots:

1. Refined vs. unrefined butters getting the same INCI treatment. Refining doesn't usually change the INCI name itself, but if a supplier adds anything during processing (an antioxidant, a deodorizing agent), that addition needs its own line on your ingredient list. Read the full composition, not just the product name.
2. Shea oil vs. shea butter. Fractionated shea oil (sometimes marketed as "shea oil" or "shea olein") is a different physical form with a different INCI designation than the whole butter. If your supplier fractionated it, don't file it as the butter.
3. Blends that include shea as one component. If you bought a "moisturizing butter blend" that's 70% shea and 30% mango butter and something else, you cannot list "Butyrospermum Parkii Butter" as if it were the whole ingredient. You list each INCI-named component at its true percentage in your finished product, which means multiplying the blend's use level in your formula by each component's share of the blend.

A quick before-and-after

What the label or spec sheet says	What goes on the CNF
Shea Butter	Butyrospermum Parkii Butter
Karite Butter	Butyrospermum Parkii Butter
Refined Shea Butter (no additives)	Butyrospermum Parkii Butter
Shea Butter blend with vitamin E added	Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Tocopherol
Shea Oil (fractionated)	Butyrospermum Parkii Oil (confirm with supplier documentation)

CAS numbers add another layer here. Shea butter, like many whole botanical extracts, doesn't always carry one clean CAS registry number the way a single defined chemical does, since it's a complex natural mixture. Some suppliers will list a CAS number anyway, sometimes inconsistently across batches. Don't panic if a botanical ingredient shows no CAS number at all; that's normal for whole plant extracts and butters, and Health Canada's system is built around the INCI name for these cases.

The takeaway for your paperwork

Before you file anything, pull the actual technical data sheet or SDS from your supplier and confirm the exact INCI wording they use, since minor phrasing variations between suppliers for the same botanical are common and usually harmless as long as the genus and species match. If you're formulating with several botanical butters and oils across a product line, it's worth building yourself a small reference table mapping every common name you buy under to its correct INCI form, so you're not re-researching it every time you file a new product.

This is exactly the kind of translation work that Cosmetic Comply automates. It takes your ingredient list, maps each item to its correct INCI name and CAS number where one exists, expands any supplier blends into their true components, and flags anything that needs a second look before you submit your notification.