What is Jojoba Tree – the Source of Jojoba Oil?

Jojoba tree fruit

Jojoba tree and its fruits are the source of the famous jojoba oil which is widely used in cosmetics. Jojoba is a plant of Simmondsia chinensis species; it is evergreen and heavily branched shrub. Actually it is the single representative of the specie. The bush grows up to 3 meter in height, while its roots are able to go deep into the desert soil up right to 9 meter down! Jojoba shrub is native to the arid-hot areas of the Earth - Argentina, South Carolina, North Mexico, Arizona and Israel. The main areas of cultivation are Argentina, Southern California, Northern Mexico, Arizona and Israel. The funny thing is that despite the name "China" the tree cannot be found in China.

As we have already said jojoba tree is famous for its oil which comes from jojoba tree fruit. Actually the oil is a liquid jojoba wax, which has two interesting features:

- It remains liquid even at the room temperature, which makes it easier to use it in the beauty industry;
- It’s amounts are pretty abundant in the jojoba fruits, while the oils of many other plants are mainly contained in a bark.

Today jojoba oil is very popular in many skin care products. This oil is unique and has properties similar to spermaceti; there are no equals to it in chemical composition in the plant world. The jojoba oil history goes back in thousands of years; one of the first samples of jojoba oil was found in Egyptian pyramids, and what is interesting, these samples fully retained their properties.

Jojoba oil or jojoba wax is received by the cold pressing process of jojoba nuts that grow in Arizona, California, Mexico and Tibet. The unique jojoba oil properties are due to the presence of amino acids in proteins structurally similar to collagen (the substance responsible for skin elasticity). Another property of the oil is that it is very resistant to rancidity and oxidation; and of course it is ideal for making cosmetic products.