Simmondsia chinensis is a suitable plant candidate to be cultivated in soil of marginal fertility and under stress conditions

Abstract

Jojoba tolerates drought, salinity and high temperatures and can be grown on marginal lands . Jojoba is the only plant known that synthesizes liquid wax, and stores in seeds up to 60% of their dry weight, and its wax has the wider applications in medicine. Jojoba shrubs do not seem to need fertilizers. To increase seed germination, seed sowing should be fulfilled during the warm months of the year (more than 21°C). since jojoba is a wind-pollinated and perennial dioecious shrub, the genetic heterogeneity of seed-obtained plants is relatively high and more than half of the seedlings are males. To avoid seed propagation problems, vegetative or in vitro propagation procedures can be used to avoid genetic variation and multiplication of elite shrubs. Vegetative propagation of jojoba shrubs can be established by stimulation of adventitious root formation on semi-hardwood cuttings, but the number of the obtained propagules is limited by plant size and period of the year. In vitro, shoot multiplication was registered on MS medium supplemented with a relatively high concentration of BAP (3.0 - 3.75 mg/ l) and a low concentration of NAA (0.1 – 1.3 mg/ l). The best data were recorded when jojoba explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with 1 g/ l activated charcoal, 0.5 g/ l mannitol, 3 mg/ l BAP and 0.1mg/l NAA and incubated at 30 oC. In four weeks, 57 % of shoots were rooted on MS medium supplemented with 1.25 mg/ l BAP and 1.3 mg/ l NAA.