Jojoba Oil: Boosting Stability

Jojoba oil has long been known for its exceptional stability levels—it is one of the many reasons it’s an ideal ingredient for personal care and beauty formulations. Now, it has been proven that jojoba oil not only features high levels of oxidative stability, but that adding jojoba oil to other oils can increase their stability levels as well.
 
Due to its unique chemical structure and antioxidant content, jojoba oil has an unmatched oxidative stability, resulting in a long shelf life and resistance towards free radicals. This exclusive property of jojoba as a carrier oil can be capitalized upon by brands and result in formulations with oxidatively-sensitive vitamins, essential oils and other natural active materials.
 
It is well known that jojoba oil is one of the most stable natural oils on the market and that jojoba’s stability could prove critical in bringing formulations with long shelf-life to the market. Recently, the oxidative stability of different vegetable oils was tested by the commonly used Rancimat method. In the experiment, jojoba oil showed the highest oxidation stability among tested oils. Its exceptional stability can be attributed to its unique chemical structure—straight chain esters. Other vegetable oils have a branched triglyceride structure that leads to oxidative degradation.
 
Not only is jojoba oil one of the most stable natural oils on the market, but adding jojoba oil to other carrier oils can improve their stability to much higher levels. In the case of avocado oil, it was improved by 400%.
 
Since hemp oil and CBD are the hottest trends right now and usage of them is rising constantly, it was necessary to examine how jojoba oil effects the stability of hemp oil. The results of the tests aligned with the previous ones; adding jojoba oil in a 20:80 ratio significantly improved the stability of hemp oil and resulted in a lower peroxide value.
 
“These studies show that jojoba oil can be used as an excellent medium for unstable compounds,” explained Anna Aharoni, R&D manager, Jojoba Desert. “By the addition of jojoba oil, the stability of a whole formulation could be improved in the case of oil-based formulations, and less preservatives could be needed in the case of aqua-based formulations. Moreover, including jojoba oil could extend the shelf life of unstable materials and will streamline product formulation—instead of two starting materials, you can just add one.”