The PCRWR has planted Jojoba on three hectare desert dune land at Dingarh Field Research Station in the Cholistan desert to test its establishment in the desert condition under conjunctive use of rainwater and moderately saline water having EC= 4.6 dSm-1, SAR = 14, RSC = Nil and pH = 7.5, while rain water quality is EC = 0.58 dSm-1. About one hundred plants are eight year old and have attained height about six feet. These plants are bearing fruit, while the plants on three hectares have been planted recently.
What is Jojoba ?
Jojoba (Simmodsia chinensis (Link) Schneider) is a perennial woody shrub native tothe semiarid regions of southern Arizona, southern California and northwestern Mexico. Jojoba (pronounced ho-HO-ba) is being cultivated to provide a renewable source of a unique high-quality oil.
It is a bushy tree and grows mostly between 2 and 4 metre height and its roots may go up to 20 metres in the porous soils. The stature of the plant may go up to three metres. The natural life span is between one hundred and two hundred years. It becomes young within the age of 7 to 10 years and start fruit bearing at the age of three years after plantation in the good climatic and soil conditions. The oil content in its seed is more than 50 percent. The plant colour remains light to dark green throughout the year. The Jojoba fruit is a capsuel that takes about six months to mature.
It is a bushy tree and grows mostly between 2 and 4 metre height and its roots may go up to 20 metres in the porous soils. The stature of the plant may go up to three metres. The natural life span is between one hundred and two hundred years. It becomes young within the age of 7 to 10 years and start fruit bearing at the age of three years after plantation in the good climatic and soil conditions. The oil content in its seed is more than 50 percent. The plant colour remains light to dark green throughout the year. The Jojoba fruit is a capsuel that takes about six months to mature.
Native Americans extracted the oil from jojoba seeds to treat sores and wounds centuries ago. Collection and processing of seed from naturally occurring stands in the early 1970s marked the beginning of jojoba domestication. In addition, the ban on the importation of sperm whale products in 1971 led to the discovery that jojoba oil is in many regards superior to sperm oil for applications in the cosmetics and other industries.
Today, 40,000 acres of jojoba are under cultivation in the southwestern U.S. Much of the interest in jojoba worldwide is the result of the plant's ability to survive in a harsh desert environment. The utilization of marginal land that will not support more conventional agricultural crops could become a major asset to the global agricultural economy.
The oldest commercial jojoba plantings in the U.S. were established in the late 1970s, and present production of jojoba oil is in the range of thousands of tons per year. The major world producers are the United States and Mexico, with considerable quantities of oil being exported to Japan and Europe.
Uses
Jojoba seed contains a light-gold colored liquid wax ester which is the primary storage lipid of the plant. This is unlike conventional oilseed crops, such as soybean, corn, olive, or peanut which produce oils as the primary storage lipid. Jojoba wax (called oil) makes up 50% of the seed's dry weight. The physical properties of jojoba oil are: high viscosity, high flash and fire point, high dielectric constant, high stability and low volatility. Its composition is little affected by temperatures up to 570�F (300�C). Jojoba oil contains straight- chained C20and C22 fatty acids and alcohols and two unsaturated bonds, which make the oil susceptible to many different types of chemical manipulations. The extracted oil is relatively pure, non-toxic, biodegradable, and resistant to rancidity.
Most jojoba oil produced in the U.S. today is sold at a high price for use in cosmetics and hair care products. As many as 300 products containing jojoba have appeared in the U.S. in recent years. As the supply of oil increases and price decreases, more uses will become economically feasible. For example, the viscosity index of jojoba oil is much higher than that of petrolium oil; therefore, it may be used as a high temperature, high pressure lubricant. The stability of jojoba oil makes it attractive to the electronic and computer industries. And since jojoba oil contains no cholesterol or triglycerides and is not broken down by normal metabolic pathways, it may become an important low-calorie oil for human consumption. The oil can be used as an antifoam agent in antibiotics production and as a treatment for skin disorders. Other proposed uses include candles, plasticizers, detergents, fire retardents, transformer oil, and for the leather industry.
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