Simmondsin from jojoba checked for appetite suppression

Harvesting a natural appetite suppressant from jojoba (pronounced ho-ho-bah) may give U.S. farmers one more reason to grow the plant, which is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico. Jojoba oil is already a popular ingredient in cosmetics and shampoos.

But jojoba meal, left over after oil extraction, was thought to contain compounds toxic to animals. The reason: Weanling mice ate less and lost weight on a diet containing 15 percent jojoba meal.

In the 1990s, Belgian researcher Marnix Cokelaere discovered that simmondsin acted as a hunger satiation ingredient. This allowed him to reinterpret earlier experiments with mice...