Aviv Amirav, Professor of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University and Director – Aviv Analytical
N. Gabriel Lemcoff, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University
Introduction
Jojoba oil is produced from the seeds of the Jojoba plant, a shrub native to the South West USA and now also grown in the Middle East. The oil makes up approximately 50% of the Jojoba seeds by weight. Jojoba oil appears as a clear golden liquid wax and among oils it is unique because it does not contain triglycerides unlike most other vegetable oils.
Jojoba oil is used as an additive in many cosmetic products, especially those marketed as being made from natural ingredients. In particular, such products commonly containing jojoba are lotions and moisturizers, hair shampoos and conditioners, or the pure oil itself may be used on skin or hair.
Recently Jojoba is explored as a source of bio-fuel since it has an attraction – the Jojoba plant can be grown in saline soils, and in desert lands. In fact, Jojoba is considered as one of the most practical and profitable solutions for desert plantation. Hot summers, warm winters, desert soil, minimal water, great salinity tolerance, lesser possibilities for infection, lesser need for fertilizers and generous financial income are all valuable characteristics of the plant.
Jojoba oil has a unique composition of almost pure heavy esters with two double bonds. Professor Gabriel Lemcoff from the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva Israel is exploring its unique features while performing various novel organic synthesis experiments with this oil.
Professor Lemcoff provided a pure Jojoba oil sample and asked Prof. Amirav to help with its analysis since it can not be analyzed by standard GC-MS (being too heavy and without expected molecular ions) or LC-MS.
We were able to analyze the pure oil and its chemical reaction products (which are not shown in this report) using the Aviv Analytical 5975-SMB GC-MS with Cold-EI, and in this post we present the Jojoba oil analysis results and conditions.
We were able to analyze the pure oil and its chemical reaction products (which are not shown in this report) using the Aviv Analytical 5975-SMB GC-MS with Cold-EI, and in this post we present the Jojoba oil analysis results and conditions.
