BACKGROUND Jatropha curcas L., also called the Physic nut, is an oil-rich shrub with multiple uses, including biodiesel production, and is currently exploited as a renewable energy resource in many countries. Nevertheless, because of its origin from the tropical MidAmerican zone, J. curcas confers an inherent but undesirable characteristic (low cold resistance) that may seriously restrict its l...

Jatropha curcas belongs to family of Euphorbiaceae, and is an important biological tree species for diesel production. The current descriptions of the phenotypic traits for male and female flowers are not comprehensive and there have been no reports about the process of J. curcas from pollen germination on stigma to pollen tubes conducting fertilization after entering the ovary and ovule. To as...

BACKGROUND Jatropha curcas L. is an oil seed producing non-leguminous tropical shrub that has good potential to be a fuel plant that can be cultivated on marginal land. Due to the low nutrient content of the targeted plantation area, the requirement for fertilizer is expected to be higher than other plants. This factor severely affects the commercial viability of J. curcas. RESULTS We explore...

Jatropha curcas stem was analyzed for chemical compositions: 19.11% pentosan, 42.99% alphacellulose and 24.11% lignin based on dry weight of 100-g raw material. The condition to fractionate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in J. curcas stem using steam explosion was optimized. The procedure started from cutting J. curcas stem into small pieces and soaked in water for overnight. After that, t...

Genetic variation in Jatropha curcas, a prospective biodiesel plant, is limited, and interspecific hybridization needed for its genetic improvement. Progeny from interspecific crosses between J. curcas and Jatropha integerrima can be used to improve agronomic characters and to increase oil content and yield. However, these hybrids have not been characterized cytologically. The present study was...

BACKGROUND Fatty acids (FAs) are important as raw materials for the biotechnology industry. Existing methods of FAs production are based on chemical methods. In this study potassium hydroxide (KOH)-catalyzed reactions were utilized to hydrolysis Jatropha curcas seed oil. RESULTS The parameters effect of ethanolic KOH concentration, reaction temperature, and reaction time to free fatty acid (F...

Extracts from Jatropha curcas, a plant used in African traditional medicine for various diseases, were tested for cytotoxic activity. The root extracts strongly reduced cell growth of tumor cells in vitro, a result consistent with the knowledge of the application of these plant extracts in traditional medicine, especially to cure/ameliorate cancer. A selection of pure diterpenoids existing in e...

Current efforts to grow the tropical oilseed crop Jatropha curcas L. economically are hampered by the lack of cultivars and the presence of toxic phorbol esters (PE) within the seeds of most provenances. These PE restrict the conversion of seed cake into animal feed, although naturally occurring 'nontoxic' provenances exist which produce seed lacking PE. As an important step towards the develop...

Increasing economic interest in Jatropha curcas requires a major research focus on the genetic background and geographic origin of this non-edible biofuel crop. To determine the worldwide genetic structure of this species, amplified fragment length polymorphisms, inter simple sequence repeats, and novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were employed for a large collection of 907 J. curcas...

Snakebite is an environmental hazard associated with a significant morbidity and mortality. Two main types of toxicity occur due to snakebite, namely vasculotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Neurotoxic snakebites present mainly with bilateral ptosis with dilated pupils and/or difficulty in breathing. Jatropha curcas belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and is commonly referred to as "Ratanjyot" in Guj...