The crude methanol extract of Jatropha curcas leaves exhibited activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Mycobacterium phlei, Candida albicans, and Trichophyton mentagrophytes but was inactive against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In a bioassay-directed fractionation, two new phorbins were isolated and analysed by spectroscopic methods....

Jatropha curcas, has been established as a plant whose seeds contain relatively high percentage of oil that is suitable for biodiesel production, among other industrial applications. Seed properties J. curcas may vary depending on soils, age plant, genotype the and agro-climatic conditions specific geographical region. Studies under such have not yet conducted. The present study was aimed at in...

Biodiesel consists of monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids. It is produced from vegetable oils or fats either by chemical transesterification with methanol or ethanol. The cost of lipases and the relatively slower reaction rate remain as the major obstacles for enzymatic production of biodiesel as opposed to the conventional chemical processes. The enzymatic process offers several advanta...

In eukaryotes, 45S rRNA genes are arranged in tandem arrays of repeat units, and not all copies are transcribed during mitosis. DNA methylation is considered to be an epigenetic marker for rDNA activation. Here, we established a clear and accurate karyogram for Jatropha curcas L. The chromosomal formula was found to be 2n=2x=22=12m+10 sm. We found that the 45S rDNA loci were located at the term...

The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic divergence between accessions of Jatropha curcas through joint analysis of morphoagronomic and molecular characters. To this end, we investigated 11 morphoagronomic characters and performed molecular genotyping, using 23 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers in 46 accessions of J. curcas. We calculated the contribution of each character...

Pollution by crude oil is wide spread and a common problem, and particularly endemic in countries whose economies are dependent on the oil industry. Such pollution arises either accidentally or operationally wherever oil is produced, transported, stored, processed or used. Benzene contamination of soil may also occur due to oil production facilities and coastal refineries. This problem arises b...

Use of ultrasonication as a pretreatment before aqueous oil extraction and aqueous enzymatic oil extraction was found to be useful in the case of extraction of oil from the seeds of Jatropha curcas L. The use of ultrasonication for 10 min at pH 9.0 followed by aqueous oil extraction gave a yield of 67%. However, the maximum yield of 74% was obtained by ultrasonication for 5 min followed by aque...

Jatropha curcas embryos were grown in vitro to observe the effects of lead on cotyledon responses. The cotyledon biomass increased initially and then decreased with increasing lead concentration. The SOD activity increased gradually up to 200 microM and then decreased. The POD activity showed a similar trend. The CAT activity was increased at all lead concentrations, the highest activity being ...