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Jojoba: A Promising New Crop – Part 2 of 3
| By pinoyfarmer | August 4, 2007 |  |
5 Uses
Jojoba oil is unproven in wide-scale commercial practice, but it offers the chemical industry a new basic raw material that in the near future will be produced in bulk. Liquid waxes have never before been available to industry from a cultivated plant. It seems likely that, with the first significant supplies becoming available, industrial chemists will soon uncover many new and wide-ranging uses for this unique natural product.
Jojoba oil and its derivatives seem to have potential for uses in products as diverse as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, foods, electrical insulators, foam-control agents, high-pressure lubricants, heating oils, plasticizers, fire retardants, and transformer oils. Moreover, jojoba oil is also a source of long-chain alcohols and acids with double bonds in slightly different positions from those in other natural fatty acids.
As already noted, jojoba oil’s boiling point is high – a desirable feature in many applications. In addition, the oil has thermal stability and high smoke, flash, and fire points. The decomposition point is 600°F (315°C).
On the other hand, the freezing point (45°-51°F; 7°-10.6°C) is also high, and this may limit the oil’s uses. For instance, the freezing point may be too high for some lubricant or food uses where the oil could solidify in cold weather or in refrigerated products.
Lubricants
Until the early 1970s, sperm-whale oil was a common ingredient in high-quality lubricants. It was used notably in vehicle differentials and transmissions, in hydraulic fluids that need a low coefficient of friction, and in cutting and drawing oils. The high-pressure lubricants used worldwide – for example, those in most automobile transmissions – commonly contained 5-25 percent sperm oil. In some of these, unmodified sperm oil was used, but more often it was sulfurized; sometimes it was epoxidized, chlorinated, or phosphorylated before being added to the lubricant base stock.
The enactment of legislation to preserve the sperm whale banned all these uses. However, jojoba oil’s composition and physical properties are close enough to those of sperm oil to ensure its suitability as a substitute. In principle, it, too, could end up in most of the vehicle transmissions used around the world. Its oiliness and surface-wetting properties are particularly promising for extreme-pressure/extreme-temperature gear oils and greases. Its wetting properties mean reduced wear and its nondrying characteristics prevent gumming and tackiness.
Sulfurized jojoba oil in general lubricants. Laboratory tests have demonstrated that jojoba can match the exceptional lubricating qualities of sperm oil. (Source: H. Gisser)
Actually, jojoba oil has several advantages over sperm oil:
· It has a mild, pleasant odor, with no fishy background.
· It contains no triglycerides (sperm oil contains about 30 percent).
· It requires little or no purification.
· It can absorb larger amounts of sulfur, giving better lubrication per unit weight.
· It does not darken significantly on sulfurization.
· The highly sulfurized oil is liquid, whereas mineral oil must be added to keep sulfurized sperm oil liquid.
· It is a renewable vegetable product that can be produced without destroying an endangered species.
Incorporating sulfur or sulfur-containing compounds enormously enhances the lubrication qualities. Extensive evaluations have shown that sulfurized jojoba oil has properties equivalent to or much better than sulfurized sperm oil in lubricant applications. Under extreme pressure it is at least as good at improving the antiwear properties and load-carrying capacity of both naphthenic and bright-stock base oils. In some tests, when small amounts of sulfurized jojoba oil were added to lubricants, the performance improved so much that it exceeded the limits of the testing machine.
Sulfurized oil in cutting-tool lubricant. Bench tests have shown that adding sulfurized jojoba oil to a base oil dramatically improves the life and cutting speed of machine tools. (Source: J. Messina)
When, in addition to sulfur, a molecule such as phosphorus, chlorine, or bromine is incorporated into the jojoba molecule, a synergistic action occurs and an even better lubricant additive is obtained. Sulfurchlorinating jojoba oil particularly enhances the wear properties, while sulfurbrominating it improves the load-carrying capacity.(J. Wisniak and H. Benajahu, U.S. Patent 4.130.495 (1978))
Jojoba oil’s main limitation as an ingredient in lubricants is its high pour point. Below 50°F (10°C) the oil solidifies. Thus, as of now, jojoba is likely to be most useful in lubricants for use at high temperatures.
Factices and Adhesives
Vegetable oils react with sulfur chloride to form materials known as factices, which are used in manufacturing varnishes, adhesives, printing ink, and flooring materials.
Sulfurchlorinating jojoba oil produces an array of products ranging from oils to rubbery solids. Each has its own qualities and properties. A sulfur content of up to 4 percent produces a flowing, reddish-yellow liquid with the same pleasant odor as raw jojoba oil itself. Higher sulfur content increases the factice’s viscosity and darkens its color to brown. When the sulfur content exceeds 9 percent, the factice becomes elastic and takes on the properties of a contact adhesive. This array of products, with widely differing viscosities and properties, offers an open field for product development and research. The sulfurchlorination process is simple and inexpensive and can easily be performed at room temperature.
Unusual Acids and Alcohols
Jojoba oil could become a source of mono-unsaturated alcohols and acids with chain lengths of 22 and 24 carbons. They can be isolated in unusual molecular purity. In principle, these acids and alcohols could be used as intermediates in the preparation of disinfectants, surfactants, detergents, lubricants, driers, emulsifiers, resins, plasticizers, protective coatings, fibers, and corrosion inhibitors. They might also prove valuable as bases for creams, ointments, antifoams for industrial use, and numerous other products. They have longer chain lengths than those currently available, and this makes possible a new range of materials with subtly changed properties.
Cosmetics
Olive oil, beeswax, and fats are traditional cosmetics bases, but jojoba has important aesthetic and technical qualities that could also make it a widespread basic cosmetics ingredient. Indeed, in recent trials, cosmetics researchers have found that refined jojoba oil was superior to all alternatives. It has no resins, tars, glycerides, alkaloids, glucosides, or low-molecular-weight fatty acids. And, because of its stability toward rancidity and its pleasant feel on the skin, it could become a standard oil-phase base for the cosmetics industry.
Jojoba oil has already been widely used in cosmetics in the United States and Europe. As many as 300 products have appeared in United States markets alone. But most of these have used jojoba oil only for its novelty value, not for its fundamental qualities. Such health and beauty care products have been successful largely because jojoba oil is easily substituted for other oils.
But manufacturers are now coming to realize that the oil has high aesthetic qualities, better stability than even mineral oil, and lacks the problems of conventional triglyceride oils. (Information from H. Libby)
Among the varied products already being sold are shampoos, hair conditioners, hair sprays, facial oils, body oils, bath oils, hand lotions, moisturizers, suntan lotions, make-up removers, shaving creams, lipsticks and lip glosses, vanishing creams, cleansing creams, and skin fresheners.
A Japanese cosmetic company (Koei Perfumery, Tokyo) has reported the absence of any acute toxicity in laboratory studies and clinical tests carried out with jojoba and jojoba-based cosmetics over a period of almost 10 years. No acute toxicity nor eye irritation resulted from use. Indeed, only 3 out of 46 persons, chosen for their susceptibility to dermatological problems, showed even slight irritation. Similar favorable results have been reported in toxicity studies conducted in the United States.
Skin seems to absorb jojoba oil within a few minutes, and transdermal penetration is suspected, although not yet proved. A preliminary investigation at the University of Michigan suggested that it penetrates the outer skin via hair follicles and accumulates within the keratin layer beneath. Neither triglycerides nor lanolin had this ability; the characteristic was unique to jojoba. Thus, jojoba oil promises not only to help make skin supple and smooth, but perhaps to carry medications into the skin as well.(Information from K. McLatchey.)
Preparation of Pharmaceuticals
Sperm oil has long been valued for controlling foam in industrial fermentations. It has excellent antifoam properties and is barely metabolized by the microbial cultures. Comparative tests have shown that jojoba oil could also be an excellent antifoam agent, at least for the production of penicillin G and cephalosporin. In fact, in a couple of experiments, the yield of penicillin unexpectedly increased by more than 20 percent when jojoba oil was substituted for sperm oil. The results have been so satisfying that industry sources have indicated they would switch entirely to jojoba if sufficient supplies could be assured.(Information from S. G. Pathak.) More research is needed to settle the matter, however, because experiments in Israel found that jojoba oil was ineffective in foam control in other applications.(Information from J. Wisniak.)
Medicinal Uses
Jojoba oil may have potential as a treatment for skin disorders. At the Ben-Gurion University Hospital in Beer-Sheva, Israel, 35 patients with severe acne were treated with cream containing jojoba oil. Doctors conducting the test report that the patients found it pleasant to use, and it seemed to ease their conditions in all cases. There were no side effects, and it restored a natural shine to skin. However, although it slowed down the acne outbreaks, it did not stop the eruption of new pustules.(Information from B.Mosovich)
Jojoba oil seems to have promise for use as an antifoaming agent in fermentation processes. Shown are the results of a set of experiments on the formation of oral penicillin. Various vegetable oils were used in various concentrations to break the foam in the fermentation flasks, and the penicillin production was measured against that resulting when sperm oil was the antifoam.Because sperm oil has long been the standard antifoam used by the pharmaceutical industry, it was surprising that substituting jojoba oil increased the penicillin yields dramatically. If such findings hold up in production scale, the increased yield would be a financial boon to the pharmaceutical industry. (Information from S. G. Pathak)
At the same university, 27 patients with psoriasis were also treated with jojoba oil-based creams. These, too, were well accepted and some noticeable improvement in skin condition was recorded. Psoriasis medicines today are either unpleasant black mixtures of coal tar and mineral oil or expensive steroids with unpleasant side effects, so this may prove to be a promising line of research.
Dermatological research suggests that jojoba oil may help reduce inflammation (Information from K.McLatchey). And in Israel, 40 volunteers in a laboratory used a jojoba cream for sunburn and chapped hands. There were no allergic reactions and the users reported getting relief.
TABLE 4 : Comparison Between Hydrogenated Jojoba Oil , Beeswax , and Carnauba
Foods
Jojoba oil’s use as a possible cooking oil has often been speculated about. It has desirable culinary properties. It is stable, bland tasting, and has no unpleasant texture. Its unusual chemical structure could make it resistant to hydrolysis by the digestive enzymes that hydrolyze most fats. Thus, the oil would be digested much less than conventional lipids, perhaps making it healthful, low-calorie food oil. (The undigested portion is eliminated in the feces.)
The Nestle Company in Switzerland has shown that laboratory rats have no dislike for, or reluctance to eat, jojoba oil. The rats ate the same amount of food as the control. It lowered their body weights and the animals were lean at the end:
These results indicate that jojoba oil may well be marketable as an edible oil for dieters. Much costly research will be needed, however, to prove its effectiveness and safety, and official acceptance from regulatory agencies will be necessary as well.
Other Uses of Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil is highly resistant to rancidity, and this characteristic suggests that products requiring a stable vegetable oil may create an important market opportunity. Possibilities include carriers for pesticides and plant hormones, water-evaporation retardants, products for sizing and waterproofing, and formulations for softening leather, paints, and adhesives.
The oil also has important potential as an additive to some plastics. It is crystallographically almost identical to, and miscible in all proportions with, low-density polyethylene.
Jojoba in Foods
When jojoba oil was administered in a single dose to rats, about 50 percent of it was absorbed, the rest being excreted in the feces. When jojoba oil was incorporated in the diets of rats at levels of 6 percent and 12 percent, its digestibility was about 40 percent. The rats showed a good tolerance to, and had no reluctance to eat, jojoba oil. At the 12-percent dietary level, they ate the same amount of food as the controls, but their body-weight gain was slightly lower and they were much leaner at the end: fat made up 7.6 percent of their body weight compared with 13 percent for the controls. At the 6-percent dietary level, they ate more food than the controls but maintained a comparable body weight.
The digested jojoba oil appears not to be accumulated in significant amounts in the body tissues. In vitro experiments show that the liver metabolizes it. One of the potential hazards of using jojoba oil in foods is that about 13 percent of its fatty acids are close to erucic acid in composition. Since this acid might contribute to heart disease, the hearts were examined histopathologically. Jojoba oil induced no lesions under the given experimental conditions.
A subchronic toxicity study was carried out to evaluate the safety of jojoba oil. The oil, fed to rats over a 2-month period, was incorporated into basal diet at 0.5, 5.0, and 10.0 percent (w/w) level. At weeks 4 and 13 of the experiment, transaminase and alkaline phosphatase levels increased in the plasma. This may indicate some liver damage, but no pathological lesions were found in the liver or other organs of the animals.
These results indicate that jojoba oil may have potential as an edible low-calorie oil for dieters, but before a wide application of jojoba oil in foods can be envisaged, safety aspects should be investigated further.
Nestle Products Technical Assistance Orbe, Switzerland.
Hot jojoba oil readily dissolves polyethylene. The jojoba becomes microencapsulated and, over a period of days, diffuses out. This appears to be a fruitful area for research and product development.(Information from T. Miwa.) Researchers have also suggested that jojoba oil should be examined as a potential polyethylene expander and as a lubricant for extrusion and molding.
Reacting jojoba oil with chlorine and bromine produces liquid derivatives that may be useful as solvents or as plasticizers for polymers. Of particular interest are bromo-derivatives, which may have fire-retardant characteristics.
Jojoba oil may also have promise in the treatment of wastewater and the recovery of rare metals. It has been used experimentally in Israel to recover radioactive metals from nuclear wastewater as well as to remove toxic heavy metals from industrial wastewater. Reportedly, it worked with high efficiency.(Information from J. Wisniak.)
Uses of Jojoba Wax
If it is priced competitively, jojoba wax appears to have commercial potential for substituting for several waxes that are now widely used. Hard waxes of this type are incorporated into floor finishes, carbon paper, coatings, masks, and sizings, as well as polishes for furniture, shoes, and automobiles. They are also employed to raise the melting point, gloss, and hardness of waxes used in paper, textiles, insulation, batteries, candles, matches, soaps, salves, crayons, and chalk. They are used to coat fruits and vegetables to retard shrinkage, reduce spoilage, minimize the effects of aging, and retain flavor. In the United States, some candy is also treated in this way so it doesn’t melt in the hand. One hard wax, spermaceti, was once used by bakeries as a release agent and lubricant. Moreover, both spermaceti and beeswax have been used as carriers for medicines. Already, small amounts of jojoba wax are being purchased by U.S. cosmetics manufacturers as a substitute for Japan wax, a hard wax used especially in mascara.
Wax-in-water emulsions have been prepared from hydrogenated jojoba wax. The wax emulsified easily, and the prepared emulsion showed no sign of water separation – an indication of good stability – after more than one month (Information from T. Miwa. The emulsifying agents were 4 percent stearic acid and 2 percent triethanolamine, and the amount of wax was 30 percent in water).
This, combined with the excellent hardness of the hydrogenated product, should enhance its desirability in a variety of applications.
Hydrogenated jojoba oil buffs well and leaves a coat hard enough for use in both solvent- and emulsion-type floor waxes. One test, however, indicated that jojoba wax tends to crystallize out from an oil or solvent. To overcome this tendency, it can be blended with petroleum waxes to form gels that are unlikely to crystallize.
Jojoba wax has a high dielectric constant, an important property for use in insulators.
TABLE 5 Hardness of Hydrogenated Jojoba Wax and Several Other Vegetable Waxes
| Wax | Hardness (a) |
| Hydrogenated jojoba oil | 1.9 |
| Carnauba wax | 2.6 |
| Cane wax | 2.1 |
| Beeswax | 0.38 |
| Paraffin | 0.24 |
(a) Brinel Hardness Number at 25°C, 4.3 kg load for 60 sec on 10.0 mm diameter steel ball.
SOURCE: T. K. Miwa
Household paraffin wax is hardened appreciably by the addition of jojoba wax. The paraffin’s opalescent appearance changes to a creamy white, giving jojoba wax important potential markets in candlemaking. It is combustible, smokeless, and has a low ash content. It makes a brittle, unsatisfactory candle when used alone, but it blends well with other waxes to produce a high-quality product. The melting point is high enough that candles do not drip around the edges or melt during storage in warm climates.
Because of its crystallinity, jojoba wax appears unsatisfactory as a mold-release agent or as a plug for making molded objects; as the molten wax cools and solidifies it develops too many fracture lines. However, a small amount of additive (such as another wax) destroys the crystallinity and could be a way to overcome this limitation.
Partially hydrogenating jojoba oil, as previously noted, produces a range of soft white waxes whose properties are as yet unknown, but they may have good prospects in lipstick and cosmetics manufacture.
Jojoba Meal
The meal that remains after the oil has been extracted is a potentially valuable by-product. It could be of particular interest for feeding livestock because such feeds are often scarce in arid areas where the plant is grown. It contains about 30 percent protein as well as carbohydrate and fiber. Of the essential amino acids in its protein, the lysine content is good, but the methionine content is poor.
However, using jojoba meal in animal feeds is very uncertain at present because of an unusual toxic factor. The meal contains four compounds (collectively known as simmondsins) that animals find unpalatable. These are potentially hazardous because they contain cyano groups.
Of the different methods used to substantially decrease or eliminate simmondsins, fermentation using the bacterium of sweet (acidophilous) milk currently seems to be the most effective. The bacterium grows well on jojoba meal, and, after three weeks at room temperature, converts it to a palatable, nutritious feed. The resulting fermented meal is high in protein and is suitable for livestock, especially ruminants. In practice, the actual detoxification can be done by a process resembling the ensilage methods already used on many of the world’s farms.(Information from A. Verbiscar)
Before jojoba meal can be accepted as a livestock feed, it must be shown that hazardous compounds cannot be transmitted to milk, meat, and eggs. In the United States, pertinent requirements of the Food and Drug Administration will have to be met.
Markets
Some rough guidelines to possible markets are given in this chapter. These are based mainly on precedents with other vegetable oils, and it should be emphasized once again that jojoba oil is unique, and when substantial quantities become available in consistent supply and at moderate prices, many new uses are likely to be discovered.
Jojoba oil remains stable during transport, and therefore, the world is its potential marketplace. Already, Japan is its largest user and has been importing a third of U.S. production in recent years, the equivalent of about 100 tons per year. In addition, West Germany and the Netherlands have together been importing a like amount.
Most of this has gone into specialty cosmetics. However, it seems clear that in the next 10 years far more oil than the cosmetics market can absorb will be produced. This means that jojoba marketers have to quickly develop new outlets. At first, these will probably be markets that already use other oils and waxes. For jojoba-based materials to penetrate such markets, they must be either cheaper or better than the present products. If there is no significant advantage in price or performance, manufacturers will refuse to bother with the expense and disruption of reformulating their products.
Sperm Oil Replacement
Sperm oil, obtained from the blubber and the head cavity of the sperm whale, has two main industrial uses: lubricant additives and leather-softening agents. Annual world production was approximately 150,000 tons in the mid 1960s and about 55,000 tons in 1977. It is even less today, not because of any inferiority in material, but because several countries have banned its importation. The United States, formerly the world’s major consumer of sperm oil, prohibited its importation in 1971 as part of an endangered species conservation policy. Later, other countries adopted similar statutes.
Because of the growing shortage of sperm oil, various industries are looking for substitutes. Lubricant manufacturers are estimated to have satisfactorily replaced 80-90 percent of the sperm oil they originally used. The leather industry apparently has been unable to find suitable replacements. Some synthetic oils have been developed for use in leather, but none appears to match the qualities of sulfonated sperm oil. Sulfonated jojoba oil should be a good replacement.
The future relationship between price and market size is unknown’ but as prices fall, jojoba oil’s potential markets will get much bigger.
As long as jojoba oil is unavailable in quantity and at moderate prices, both the leather and lubricant industries are expected to continue with other substitutes.
At present, the remaining stocks of refined sperm oil are traded at prices up to $3,000 per ton. At such a price, the potential demand for jojoba oil, just for use in lubricants, has been estimated at 20,00050,000 tons per year.(Information from W. P. Miller)
Pharmaceuticals
The world market for pharmaceutical products is large. In 1979, it amounted to about $65 billion. In recent years, the real annual growth has increased at a rate of about 7 percent, and this pace is expected to continue, primarily because of the developing countries’ ever-growing demand for pharmaceutical products.
Generally speaking, pharmaceuticals are expensive on a per-kilogram or per-ton basis. As a result, this sector is in a better position than any other to pay for low-production, high-quality ingredients such as today’s jojoba oil, which is too costly for larger and cheaper markets.
If the plantations already established live up to even modest expectations, the amount of jojoba oil available in future years will be substantial. This stylized graph shows one possible scenario. Floods, frosts, and other adversities can be expected to interrupt the smoothness of the curve. Unexpectedly low yields may shift the curve to the right so that the indicated yields are achieved in later years. Overall, however, the trend should be like that shown. The anticipated 1992 production is about the same as the amount of sperm oil that the United States was importing in the early 1970s. (Information from C. Whittaker)
As already mentioned, the oil’s physical and chemical properties constitute a good basis for its prospective use as an antifoam agent in manufacture of antibiotics. As an indication of the size of this highly specialized market, the U.S. production of just one antibiotic, penicillin, in theory could absorb 8,000 tons (7 million kg) of jojoba oil annually. However, so far, the oil has been used only experimentally as an antifoam agent in penicillin production.
Although jojoba’s potential for direct use in pharmaceuticals is currently being investigated (notably in formulations of ointments and creams for skin injuries and disorders), any newly developed products will have to pass public health tests before being introduced to the public. Clearly, it will take some years for jojoba oil to be used directly in pharmaceuticals on any significant scale.
Cosmetics
As mentioned previously, jojoba is already being used in various cosmetic products, but, in terms of world use, still on a small scale. Currently, it is largely small manufacturers that buy it for hair and skin preparations.
The greatly expanded use of jojoba oil in cosmetics seems to depend mainly on stable supplies and lower prices. It should increase significantly when supplies increase and prices drop as more plantations come into production.
The overall cosmetic industry has expanded steadily in recent years. The international trade in cosmetics increased at an annual real rate of about 13 percent between 1974 and 1978, reaching a total value of about $1.7 billion. Although the world market is relatively large, only part of it – hair and skin preparations, face makeup, and lipsticks – is relevant for jojoba oil and wax.
The general trend towards natural cosmetic products is noticeable in the industry, and this should benefit jojoba. Not surprisingly, most of the jojoba oil used at present is in cosmetics advertised as being “natural”.
As its fundamental properties of stability and quality become more apparent, and its price drops with increasing production, jojoba oil could perhaps achieve sales to the cosmetics industry of between 10,000 and 12,000 tons per year.(Information from W. P. Miller)
Waxes
If minor waxes such as spermaceti and ouricuri are included, the total international trade in animal and vegetable waxes is about 20,000 tons per year. The different types sell at average prices ranging between $3,000 and $6,500 per ton. This is expected to remain more or less stable, partly because of the increasing competition of synthetic waxes.
Once jojoba wax is available in commercial quantities on a regular basis, it may be able to seize a sizable part of the wax market, but only if it can be produced at prices comparable to those of waxes such as beeswax, carnauba, and candelilla. Some of the possibilities are described below.
Beeswax Replacement. Most countries of the world produce their own beeswax, primarily by local beekeeping industries. The amount traded internationally is relatively static. Between 1972 and 1976, 5,000-5,500 tons were traded internationally each year. Ninety percent was absorbed by the United States, Japan, West Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Beeswax is used in cosmetics (such as skin creams, emulsions, makeup foundations, face powders, rouge, hair creams, and lipsticks), food (candies), pharmaceuticals (ointments, coatings on pills), and candles.
Although quantities remained steady, prices for beeswax have risen over the years. Between 1973 and 1980, the international prices rose at an average annual rate of about 10 percent in real terms. Prices normally fluctuate in the range of $5,500 to $6,500 per ton.
On its technical merits, jojoba wax seems to be a suitable substitute for beeswax in many uses.
Carnauba Wax Replacement. Carnauba wax has many possible applications, but it is primarily used for carbon paper, floor polishes, car polishes, and cosmetics. Brazil is the only country that produces significant amounts. Its exports range from 10,000 to 14,000 tons annually. Prices range between $2,000 and $4,000 per ton, depending on quality. Jojoba wax seems a suitable replacement for carnauba in most applications. If its price drops to a point where it can compare with carnauba’s, it is likely to capture some markets. This is primarily because carnauba is picked by hand and its prices are likely to rise quickly. Also, its supplies are under political control and could be subject to deliberate manipulation.
Candelilla Wax Replacement. Candelilla wax is used mainly in the manufacture of chewing gum, polishes, and cosmetics. Mexico, the only significant producer, increased its exports from about 2,000 tons in 1972 to about 2,500 tons in 1976. Prices ranged between $2,900 and $3,800 per ton, depending on quality.
Again, jojoba wax is a likely substitute. Its melting point is slightly higher and, because it is a cultivated rather than a wild plant, its supplies could be more stable and its prices more steady, thereby giving it the competitive edge.
The eventual possible demand for jojoba wax in all these uses is on the order of 5,000 to 10,000 tons per year, if its price is competitive.
7 Commercial Uncertainties
Potential investors contemplating farming jojoba should be cautious. Claims abound for the ease with which jojoba can be grown commercially, but jojoba requires a delay of about five years before it begins producing an income, and investing in the crop at this time appears to be suitable only for persons or organizations of substantial means. And investors should expect an economic risk for a long time.
Early jojoba growers, who rushed into planting without benefit of today’s knowledge or experience to back up their management decisions, are likely to experience economic difficulties. Such situations occur with all farm crops; failure of imprudent ventures should not be viewed as an outright indictment of the long-term future of jojoba itself.
Actually, with almost any new crop comes failure and frustration, myths and misconceptions. (Avocados, kiwifruit, pecans, and pistachios all had turbulent beginnings in the United States, and yet all have become profitable, stable, national resources.) Patience and business acumen are essential. Interweaving plant science and business enterprise with market development is so complex that only a handful of farm crops have been successfully domesticated in modern times.
With potential industrial customers reluctant to estimate the quantity of jojoba oil they would consume, forecasts of market size must be based on tenuous assumptions of demand, supply, price, and any special technical benefits the oil might bring when compared with other oils. This means that, at present, there can be no foolproof projections of future price or demand.
Starting a Plantation
Jojoba is robust and adaptable, but it will not yield commercially significant amounts of oil just anywhere. It requires a congenial site: deep, well-drained soils, a hot, dry climate with little threat of frost, and preferably a reliable supply of water. Farmers should look for frost-free, low-lying, semiarid land. It should be fairly level if irrigated farming is to be practiced.
Jojoba development. Jojoba is now at a crossroads and its future course of development is uncertain. Its commercial testing time is still ahead.
Temperature. Before proceeding, growers should carefully investigate the area’s climatic history to make sure the temperature rarely falls below 23°F ( – 5°C) for extended periods. With a permanent crop like this, a single severe frost every 10 years could doom a commercial endeavor or require expensive frost-protection devices. Mature plants can survive a medium frost (such as 25°F), but it kills their flower buds so that no crop results that growing season.
To judge a site’s suitability, local weather data detailing lowest temperatures in previous decades should, if possible, be obtained. Even this may not be enough to determine specific local conditions because variations can occur within a few miles of where the data were recorded. Rolling terrain is especially tricky because on frosty nights pockets of cold air can form in low sites.
Rainfall. Although native stands of jojoba grow where rainfall can drop to as low as 4 inches (100 mm) a year, the plant needs more than that for profitable production in commercial plantations. A mature plantation, for example, probably needs at least 18-22 inches (460560 mm) of water a year to be commercially viable, at least in industrialized countries.
Sex Determination. At present, it is not possible to determine whether a seedling is male or female until it flowers. This makes it difficult to position the male plants in a plantation. The problem can be circumvented by planting and then “roguing out” the unwanted males (and inferior females) once they bloom. Using cuttings or tissue culture to vegetatively propagate plants of a known sex allows the grower to avoid this problem entirely.
Plant Selection. Genetically, jojoba is extremely diverse. It displays variations in branching patterns, leaf size, earliness of flowering, number of fruits per node, fruiting pattern, and male to female ratios. This diversity results in large variations between individual plants in the time they take to mature, their seed yield, and their adaptability to a given site. This adds enormously to the complexities the grower must master to achieve commercial success.
From 1978 until 1983 most plantations were established using seed, and because of their inherent diversity, more than two-thirds of the yield may come from fewer than one-third of the female plants.
Such variability, however, also provides opportunities to select and breed for optimal characteristics. It is vital to find and replicate quality specimens – planting them will result in plantations that yield more rapidly and several times higher than has been possible heretofore.
Management
It is a widespread myth that jojoba needs no management. Like other crops, it requires skill and care to ensure a financial return. Weed control and fertilization, for example, can significantly influence yield and profitability. Of five 4-year-old Israeli plots using identical seed but different management techniques, one produced 1,350 kg of seed per hectare, another 1,050 kg per hectare, and three averaged only 162 kg per hectare.
There is also a misconception that jojoba doesn’t need irrigation. That assertion may be true for survival, but, in most cases, not for maximum production.
Yields
Because the crop is so new, definite projections cannot be made about yields of fully mature plantations. One factor complicating yield projections is the consistency of bearing. Jojoba is not inherently an alternate-bearing crop, but some plants do bear prolifically one year and bear almost nothing the next; others are much more consistent.
The reasons for this need to be clarified, and ways to overcome inconsistency translated into management practices.
Plantation spacing is another complication in yield projections. Although a density of 900-1,000 female plants per acre (2,200-2,500 per hectare) seems to be a good target, some growers aim for twice that many, preferring to remove the less desirable plants later as they become identifiable. (This is an uncertain process because the low, early yielders may be the high bearers in the long run. And the bushes can get so intertwined that removing one without damaging another is almost impossible.) Other growers aim for only 500 plants per acre (1,240 per hectare) and may interplant other crops between the young bushes to provide income during the early years.
By and large, researchers don’t agree on likely yields in commercial plantations. Three of their different projections are listed below:
· Conservative. University of Arizona researchers project yields of 0.5 pounds (200 g) of seed per plant (without roguing or selection) at age 5 years, and 1 pound (0.5 kg) of seed per plant at age 10. This is based on the average yield of the various plants in their germplasm collection at Mesa, Arizona.
· Moderate. University of California researchers believe that 3-4 pounds (1.3-1.8 kg) of seed from seedling-derived plants 7-8 years old is within reach. And they believe that by planting cuttings taken from the best plants available, 4-5 pounds (1.8-2.3 kg) of seed per plant seems realistic.
· Optimistic. In a university experimental plot in California, some trees have yielded 7 pounds (2.6 kg) per plant each year from their eighth year onward. Although this provides hope for especially good yields in the future, it is generally observed that yields in farm fields are not as abundant as those in university experimental plots.
At present, a yield of 200 pounds per acre (200 kg per hectare) from 4- to 5-year-old shrubs and of 3,000 pounds of seed per acre (3,000 kg per hectare) from an 11- to 12-year-old plantation appears to be a realistic expectation from well-managed, carefully selected plants. But no plantations are yet old enough to actually produce this amount – the average yield worldwide is 0.7 pounds (300 g) per plant in the fourth year.
As better plants are selected and vegetatively propagated, dramatic increases in yield and decreases in maturing time will occur. Already, in Israel, 3.5-year-old superior plants, propagated by tissue culture, have yielded an average of 3 pounds (1.2 kg) per plant. (The high was 1.5 kg and the low was 0.4 kg per plant.) Also in Israel, a 2-hectare plot near Mohav yielded 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) per plant in the fourth year.
Processing
The existing jojoba-processing facilities in the United States have a capacity to produce 1.6 million pounds (0.7 million kg) of oil per year, but they actually run at only about 20 percent capacity because of the limited amount of seed available from the native crop and from the young plantations. These factories, running at a fraction of their actual capacity, extract the oil at a price of 50-75 cents per pound of oil ($1.10-$1.65 per kg). This high cost currently adds a commercial uncertainty, but, at maximum production (which should be achieved in the next few years), these facilities should be able to routinely extract the oil at a cost of 8-12 cents per pound (18-26 cents per kg).(Information from C. Whittaker)
Plantings Outside North America
With a crop so new, commercial viability outside the plant’s native habitat still needs to be proved. Trial plots are encouraged, but, for the time being, massive plantings of jojoba outside the Sonoran Desert are not recommended. Although there is little doubt that jojoba will survive in Africa and the Middle East and other similar climates, there is as yet no certainty that the crop will set enough seed to be commercially profitable.
Competing Substances
Orange Roughy Oil. The orange roughy, a fish recently discovered in the deep waters off the coast of New Zealand, produces an oil of the wax-ester type. Fillets of this fish have become a popular delicacy in New Zealand and increasingly in Japan and North America.
Orange roughy oil is being commercially extracted from the waste material left after filleting the meat (Fish oils extracted from two other South Pacific deepwater species’ the black oreo and the small-spired oreo, also contain this type of oil). Made up predominantly of C-36, C-38, and C-40 wax esters, it is contaminated with up to 5 percent triglycerides, as well as saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and fatty alcohols ranging from C-14 to C-24. Perhaps because of the free acids, the raw oil is unusually corrosive, causing rubber and polymeric seals to decay; this has delayed its introduction into commerce.
Reportedly, an estimated 2,500 tons of orange roughy oil could be produced annually from the catch allocated by the New Zealand government’s fishing laws. By comparison, the amount of jojoba now in cultivation today should produce 10 times that amount when the plantations reach maturity.
Jojoba is generally of longer chain length than this fish oil, it has no triglycerides, and requires no deodorization or “preservation” prior to use.
“Synthetic Jojoba.” During the past two years, as jojoba oil prices rose because of increased demand and a poor harvest from the native crop, several chemical companies have produced “jojoba substitutes.” One company in West Germany already makes a jojoba-like liquid wax out of high-erucic rapeseed oil and sells about two tons of it a week. Some physical characteristics (such as color and odor, infrared absorption patterns, and viscosities) of these so-called jojoba substitutes are similar to those of pure jojoba oil, but little information has yet been published that compares their range of functional properties with those of jojoba oil itself.
In experiments, jojoba substitutes have been made from the oils of plants such as crambe, limnanthus (meadowfoam), lunaria, and rapeseed. Like other vegetable oils, these are triglyceride oils, but their fatty acids have about the same carbon chain length as those in jojoba. To transform them into the substitute takes three chemical transformations: the oils are hydrolyzed and their fatty acids chemically separated from the glycerol, half the fatty acids are reduced to alcohols, and the resulting alcohols are esterified with the remaining half of the acids to form the wax ester.
Such a process currently produces a cheaper product than jojoba oil. But when the full jojoba crop comes on stream, it seems likely that the cost advantage will be reversed.
Compared with these competitors, jojoba has two major technical advantages: high natural purity and a single double bond in each of its acid and alcohol portions. Most other vegetable oils have a greater amount of unsaturation, and when chemically transformed into derivatives (for lubricants, factices, and other industrial products), the extra double bonds lead to tars and gums that are detrimental in many uses.
Biotechnology. Plant scientists have found that tissue from immature jojoba seeds (2 months after pollination) can be artificially cultured. As the cells of these “test-tube embryos” multiply, they produce an oil identical to that in jojoba seeds. It is thought that such tissues might be cultured en masse, thus bypassing the plant and generating jojoba oil in a factory. At present, though, this process cannot compete economically with jojoba oil flowing from plantations.
In future it may be possible to put jojoba genes in bacteria and produce jojoba oil by fermentation. This possibility also seems far distant because five or six genes are involved in producing the oil, and it would take a lifetime of painstaking research to get them transferred and activated in a microorganism.(Information from C. W. Lee)
8 Jojoba Industry Needs
Despite the fact that growers have developed suitable farming practices, the industry is only now beginning to achieve the credibility, cohesiveness, and efficiency required for large-scale commercial success.
Indeed, jojoba has had to overcome a dubious reputation: a few promoters made outrageous claims (especially in deals associated with land speculation); others sold oil of questionable quality; and some manufactured products claiming to contain jojoba that in fact contained none. The enormous price increases in 1981 and 1982 (when the wild crop was sparse and prices rose to $10,000 a barrel) disenchanted many potential long-term customers. Further, the lack of standards and quality control has not helped jojoba’s image with its most important audience, the manufacturers of consumer products.
Because of irregularities in the weather, the supply of jojoba oil to the market is still erratic and unreliable. (In parts of Arizona the 1984 crop was lost to a “freak” flood, the 1985 crop to frost.) As a result, potential purchasers have had no assurance of a consistent supply of dependable quality oil at a stable price. Consequently, major industrial corporations are not using jojoba in their products as yet.
Market Development
The jojoba industry can only realize its profit potential if it now applies the same effort to market development as it applied to propagation and farming practices. The major challenge is to increase the number of companies that utilize jojoba in their products.
Potential users have already shown reluctance to incorporate jojoba into their products because they lack technical information, have only limited experience in handling it, and suffer from a dearth of costbenefit data – all of which has been compounded by the absence of an assured supply.
Growers and processors must now concentrate on helping industry develop and market jojoba products by educating buyers and technical personnel. For example, they must help substantiate the claims made for jojoba oil and its many uses.
The manufacturer, on the other hand, has an opportunity to create a new, national, renewable resource by cooperating with the jojoba industry in developing products that utilize jojoba oil at prices that match the requirements of today’s producers.
Pricing
Some of the problems growers face in achieving an adequate return follow (This section deals with jojoba pricing in the United States. Information supplied by C. Whittaker).
· Today. During these early years – when production is low, harvesting costs high, and plantation development costs are being borne – a U.S. grower needs to receive about $2.00 per pound ($4.40 per kg) for his seed to break even (The break-even costs are high because the grower has 5 or 6 years of expenses with no income. After about year 8, when the cost of establishing the plantation has been amortized, break-even costs could be much lower). Producing 1 pound of oil takes up to 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg) of seed and extracting it in low volume costs 50¢ per pound ($1.10 per kg) of oil. This means that the selling price for oil from today’s plantations has to be about $5.50 per pound, the equivalent of $40.00 per gallon, ($12.00 per kg; $8.80 per liter).
· The near future. In higher volumes, processing is more costefficient (especially with solvent extraction) and can be done at 8¢ per pound (18¢ per kg). Therefore, as supplies increase, the price of oil should soon drop to $4.00 per pound, or $30.00 per gallon ($9.00 per kg; $6.60 per liter). This will still give the grower a selling price of $2.00 per pound ($4.40 per kg) of seed.
· Long term. With increasing production, improved harvesting, and a yield of 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of oil per acre, the break-even cost should come down to $2.00 per pound of oil, the equivalent of $15.00 per gallon ($4.40 per kg; $3.30 per liter). This situation is within reach as the latest clones are planted.
Eventually, jojoba oil must be competitively priced with the products it is replacing. To reach the mass markets for lubricants and hard waxes, it must be priced below $2.00 a pound ($4.40 per kg). At that level, the demand would far exceed supply, and plantings would have to increase substantially all over the world just to keep up (Preliminary results from the sparse information available indicate that jojoba oil outperforms its competitors and at a lower additive level. Thus, it may well be that jojoba oil at, say, $5.00 per pound ($11.00 per kg) is more cost-effective than a synthetic lubricant additive at $2.00 per pound ($4.40 per kg). But this is not proven.).
A long-term target sale price is close to 50¢ per pound of plantation seed ($1.10 per kg), which is equivalent to an oil price about $8.00 per U.S. gallon ($1.80 per liter). This general level seems realistic in the future world marketplace. It represents a gross output of $1,000 per acre at a ton of seed per acre ($2,470 per hectare at 2.47 tons of seed per hectare).
Reducing Production Costs
Efficient plantation management is the key to the future of the jojoba industry. Commercial growers must concentrate on vigorous cost control – slashing to the minimum production costs per acre, per bush, and per pound.
Related Posts:
Jojoba: A Promising New Crop – Part 1
Jojoba: A Promising New Crop – Part 3
Source: Jojoba: New Crop for Arid Lands, New raw Material for Industry
Topics: Agri-Business, Crops & Vegetables | 2 Comments »
October 26th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
please could you contact me regards to the projects i am a project manager but wish to make contact with any one in the fraternity of jojoba
February 1st, 2011 at 4:39 pm
complete information on JOJOBA is available on the site http://www.jatrophabiodiesel.org
regards