Recent drought across the desert Southwest US may strongly affect the physiological functioning of evergreen desert species that maintain leaves through these dry periods. In July 2002 we compared the ecophysiological performance of the open-canopied, small-leaved creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) to the dense-canopied, more broad-leaved jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) growing on a ridge-top, east...

Wax esters are esters of long-chain fatty acids and long-chain fatty alcohols which are of considerable commercial importance and are produced on a scale of 3 million tons per year. The oil from the jojoba plant (Simmondsia chinensis) is the main biological source of wax esters. Although it has a multitude of potential applications, the use of jojoba oil is restricted, due to its high price. In...

Hyperglycemia occurs during diabetes and insulin resistance. It causes oxidative stress by increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, leading to cellular damage. Polyphenols play a central role in defense against oxidative stress. In our study, we investigated the antioxidant properties of simmondsin, a pure molecule present in jojoba seeds, and of the aqueous extract of jojoba seeds on f...

Jojoba seed meal (Simmondsia chinensis) contains approximately 15% glucosides identified as simmondsin, 5-demethyl simmondsin, didemethyl simmondsin, along with simmondsin 2%-ferulate, 4-demethyl simmondsin 2%-ferulate, and 5-demethyl simmondsin ferulate. The new simmondsin derivative was isolated from jojoba meal by a combination of column chromatography and preparative HPLC and identified by ...

Oils of a significant value both as fuels as well as for cosmetic applications can be extracted from the fruits of the jojoba plant. After extracting the oil, the remains of the fruit can still be further utilized as a solid fuel in furnaces or feedstock to animals. In the present work, the solid waste jojoba remains have been processed chemically to extract more biodiesel oil. The physical and...

Jojoba [Simmondsia chinensis, Simmondsiaceae, (Link) Schnieder], a native of deserts of the American Southwest, is unusual and perhaps unique amongst higher plants in that its seed storage lipids are liquid waxes rather than triglycerides. These waxes are esters of long chain (mostly; C20, C22, and C24), monounsaturated, fatty acids and alcohols. The waxes are produced in developing embryos dur...

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schn.) is a nontraditional crop in arid and semi-arid areas. Vegetative propagation can be achieved by layering, grafting, or rooting semi-hardwood cuttings, but the highest number of possible propagules is limited by the size of the plants and time of the year. Micropropagation is highly recommended strategy for obtaining jojoba elite clones. For culture ini...

Diol was synthesised from Jojoba oil ester by a recyclable catalytic system and used for biobased polyurethane synthesis.

To detect genetic variations among different Simmondsia chinensis genotypes, two gene targeted markers, start codon targeted (SCoT) polymorphism and CAAT box-derived polymorphism (CBDP) were employed in terms of their informativeness and efficiency in analyzing genetic relationships among different genotypes. A total of 15 SCoT and 17 CBDP primers detected genetic polymorphism among 39 Jojoba g...