Effect of Detoxified Jatropha Cake on Hepatic and Renal Function following Long Term Feeding to Mice

Jatropha curcas belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and is distributed in many tropical and subtropical countries. The toxicity of the whole seed Jatropha curcas has been known for a long time. Jatropha plant is used as a source of biodiesel. In addition to being a source of oil, Jatropha also provides seed-cake and is a by-product of oil extraction that serves as a highly nutritious and economic protein supplement in animal feed. It also contains many toxic components like phorbol ester, lectins, saponin, curcin, HCN etc. In the present study, we detoxified whole Jatropha cake by subjecting to various solvent extraction, alkali and heat treatment. After processing, cake was dried and animal baits were prepared by mixing different percentage of detoxified (JCMD) and non detoxified cake (JCM). Long term (90 days) animal feeding trials and toxicological evaluations was carried out. Animals were sacrificed at various time intervals for toxicity evaluation. The toxicity study result revealed that 10% (w/w) detoxified (JCMD) baits fed group animals survived till the 90 days and did not show any significant changes in various clinical parameters related to hepatic and renal function while in 10% non detoxified (JCM) fed groups mortality starts on 6th day of feeding and no animal was survived beyond 9th day. The result of long term feeding trials and toxicity study reveals that 10% detoxified Jatropha cake can be supplemented in animal’s diet after detoxification.