I believe you refer to the Jojoba plant; interestingly, the chemical composition of its oil is compatible with sperm-whale oil and GM used it as a differential additive for their "Posi-Lok" limited-slip rearend and front differentials so that they could better negotiate turns; the whales had become protected and their oil wasn't plentiful, so science came to the rescue.
The above sentence was from memory, so I checked Google.com, here's what I got: Click for site