Shrub might save the sperm whale – Science News, March 25, 1972
The sperm whale is an endangered species. A significant cause is that the whale oil is heat-resistant and chemically and bodily steady. This makes it helpful for lubricating delicate equipment. The solely substitute is dear carnauba wax from the leaves of palm timber that develop solely in Brazil … [but] wax from the seeds of the jojoba, an evergreen desert shrub, is sort of nearly as good.
Update
After sperm whale oil was banned within the early Nineteen Seventies, the United States sought to replenish its reserves with eco-friendly oil from jojoba seeds (SN: 5/17/75, p. 335). Jojoba oil’s chemical construction is sort of equivalent to that of sperm whale oil, and the shrub is native to some North American desert ecosystems, making the plant an interesting substitute. Today, jojoba shrubs are cultivated all over the world on virtually each continent. Jojoba oil is utilized in a whole bunch of merchandise, together with cosmetics, prescribed drugs, adhesives and lubricants. Meanwhile, sperm whale populations have began to get well beneath worldwide anti-whaling agreements (SN: 2/27/21, p. 4).