Jojoba

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Jojoba

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), pronounced "ho-ho'-b?", is a shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
native to the Sonoran and Mojave

Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert , , locally referred to as the High Desert, occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona, in the United States....
desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
s of Arizona

Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
, California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, and Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
. It is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae

Simmondsiaceae

Simmondsiaceae or the Jojoba Family is a family of flowering plants. The family is not recognized by all taxonomic systems, the single species, Simmondsia chinensis, often being treated as belonging to family Buxaceae....
, and sometimes placed in the box family, Buxaceae. It is also known as goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush.

ba grows to 1–2 m tall, with a broad, dense crown.

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Encyclopedia

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), pronounced "ho-ho'-b?", is a shrub

Shrub

Mojave Desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
s of Arizona

Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
, California

California

Mexico

Simmondsiaceae

Description

Jojoba grows to 1–2 m tall, with a broad, dense crown. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are opposite, oval in shape, 2–4 cm long and 1.5-3 cm broad, thick waxy glaucous gray-green in color. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are small, greenish-yellow, with 5–6 sepals and no petals. Each plant is single-sex

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
, either male or female, with hermaphrodites being extremely rare. The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is an acorn-shaped ovoid, three-angled capsule

Capsule (fruit)

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a dehiscent structure composed of two or more carpels, that, at maturity, split apart to release the seeds within....
1–2 cm long, partly enclosed at the base by the sepals. The mature seed is a hard oval, dark brown in color and contains an oil (liquid wax) content of approximately 54%. An average-size bush produces a kilogram

Kilogram

The kilogram or kilogrammeThe spelling kilogram is used by the International Committee for Weights and Measures and the U.S....
of pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
, to which few humans are allergic.

Jojoba foliage provides year-round food opportunity for many animals, including deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
, javelina, bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America and Siberia with large horns which can weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae....
, and livestock. The nuts are eaten by squirrels, rabbits, other rodents, and larger birds. Only Bailey's Pocket Mouse

Bailey's Pocket Mouse

Bailey's Pocket Mouse is a species of rodent in the Heteromyidae family.It is found in Mexico and the United States....
, however, is known to be able to digest the wax found inside the jojoba nut. In large quantities, the seed meal is toxic to many mammals, and the indigestible wax acts as a laxative

Laxative

Laxatives are foods, compounds, or drugs taken to induce bowel movements or to loosen the stool, most often taken to treat constipation. Certain stimulant, lubricant, and saline laxatives are used to evacuate the Colon for rectum and bowel examinations, and may be supplemented by enemas in that circumstance....
in humans. The Seri

Seri

The Seris are an indigenous group of the Mexico States of Mexico of Sonora. The majority reside on the Seri communal property , in the towns of Punta Chueca and El Desemboque on the mainland coast of the Gulf of California....
, who utilize nearly every edible plant in their territory, don't regard the beans as real food and in the past ate it only in emergencies.

Despite its scientific name Simmondsia chinensis, Jojoba does not originate in China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
; the botanist Johann Link

Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link

Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link was a Germany natural history and botanist.Link was born at Hildesheim as a son of the minister August Heinrich Link , who taught him the love for nature through collection of 'natural objects'....
, originally named the species Buxus chinensis, after misreading Nuttall

Thomas Nuttall

Thomas Nuttall was an England botany and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire and spent some years as an apprentice printer in England....
's collection label "Calif" as "China". Jojoba was briefly renamed Simmondsia californica, but priority rules require that the original specific epithet be used. The common name should also not be confused with the similar-sounding Jujube

Jujube

Ziziphus zizyphus , commonly called Jujube, Red Date , or Chinese Date, is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily for its fruits....
(Ziziphus zizyphus), an unrelated plant.

Etymology

The name "jojoba" originated with the O'odham people of the Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California....
in the southwest United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, who treated burns with an antioxidant salve made from a paste of the jojoba nut.

Cultivation and uses

Jojoba is grown for the liquid wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
(commonly called jojoba oil

Jojoba oil

Jojoba oil is the liquid wax produced in the seed of the jojoba plant, a shrub native to southern Arizona, southern California and northwestern Mexico....
) in its seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s. This oil is rare in that it is an extremely long (C36-C46) straight-chain wax ester

Wax ester

An ester, found in some fish such as orange roughy, oilfish, escolar, black oreo, smooth oreo and other fish, primarily deep water. Wax esters are also found in some plants, notably jojoba....
and not a triglyceride

Triglyceride

is a glyceride in which the glycerol is esterified with three fatty acids. It is the main constituent of vegetable oil and animal fats....
, making jojoba and its derivative jojoba ester

Jojoba ester

Jojoba esters are the hydrogenation or transesterification product of Jojoba oil. Interesterified Jojoba Esters are commonly used in cosmetics formulations as an emollient, due to its remarkable similarity to the natural sebum, and its high oxidative stability....
s more similar to human sebum and whale oil

Whale oil

Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of Right Whale and the Bowhead Whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale....
than to traditional vegetable oils. Jojoba oil is easily refined to be odorless, colorless and oxidatively stable, and is often used in cosmetics

Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance or protect the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care Cream , lotions, Powder , perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubb...
as a moisturizer and as a carrier oil

Carrier oil

Carrier oil, also known as base oil or vegetable oil, is used to dilute essential oils and Absolute before they are applied to the skin....
for specialty fragrances. It also has potential use as both a biodiesel

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat , which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles....
fuel

Fuel

Fuel is any material that is burned or altered in order to obtain energy and to heat or to move an object. Fuel releases its energy either through a chemical reaction means, such as combustion, or nuclear means, such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion....
for cars and trucks, as well as a biodegradable lubricant. Because sperm whales are endangered, plantations of jojoba have been established in a number of desert and semi-desert areas, predominantly in Argentina, Israel, Mexico, Palestinian Authority, Peru, and the USA. It is currently the Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert

Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
). Selective breeding is developing plants that produce more beans with higher wax content, as well as other characteristics that will facilitate harvesting.

External links

An explanation of the scientific name