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Received Apr 20, 2017; Accepted Aug 29, 2017
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1. Introduction
The jojoba plant, Simmondsia chinensis (Link), is native to the Sonora Desert of northwestern Mexico, California and neighboring states [1]. It produces capsules with seeds which are rich in a unique oil that is actually a liquid wax. At the molecular unit, jojoba oil unlike most vegetable oils is not a triglyceride, that is, fatty acids esterified to a glycerol backbone. Rather, each molecule of this oil comprises a linear long-chain monoene fatty acid esterified to a long-chain monoene fatty alcohol giving rise to mainly C38:2–C46:2 liquid wax esters. The oil content of the seed is 50–60% by weight of dry matter [2–8]. Jojoba oil is highly emollient and lends itself to use as a component in myriads of personal care cosmetic formulations. Derivatization of this oil has been practiced for many years producing halogenated products from which polyunsaturated analogues of jojoba oil intermediates were generated for research and other needs [9–13]. Many more potential uses of the oil have been anticipated including biodiesel manufacture [14], but suitability of this oil for use as a fuel is questionable technically unless it is cracked to shorter chain-length intermediates. Because of its natural lubricating character, it has been explored as an anticorrosive agent for iron [15]. Although jojoba oil has enormous use potential, its drawback is its expensiveness arising from the limited commercial volume of oil available. To offset this, handicap plantations for commercial production of jojoba oil are developing in Argentina, Australia, Israel, and elsewhere on semiarid lands [12]. Recent efforts to explore synthetic and enzymatic development of jojoba-like mimics or analogue esters are yet other approaches aimed at narrowing the availability gap [16, 17]. The latter approaches will become more practical when long-chain fatty acids from oilseed crops are commercially available using developing improved separation techniques for such oils. The ready availability of these long-chain fatty acids and fatty alcohols as synthons will greatly facilitate synthetic approaches to jojoba-like esters. In the current study, the aim is to tap the natural emolliency of the...