Seed oil of Jatropha curcas L. germplasm: Analysis of oil quality and fatty acid composition

Jatropha curcas L. is recognized as one of the important non-edible tree borne oilseeds (TBOs) in India and many other tropical countries. J. curcas is a promising bioenergy crop as its seed oil is a suitable feedstock for biodiesel production. This study focused on a total of 19 J. curcas accessions for seed oil extraction, oil quality analysis and fatty acid composition. Most of the accessions showed more than 30% oil content with free fatty acid content ranging from 0.21 to 1.82%. The oil samples were transesterified efficiently to fatty acid methyl esters as evident from proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR) spectra. As revealed by gas chromatography, the contents of the four major fatty acids were found to significantly vary in the seed oils viz Palmitic acid (8.64-17.05%), stearic acid (4.34-7.94%), oleic acid (26.26-46.36%) and linoleic acid (28.72-53.78%). A number of seed oils showed high level of oleic acid (40.02-46.36%), and some other oil samples were rich in linoleic acid (similar to 45%). These J. areas accessions appeared to be promising with regard to clonal propagation, field trials, large-scale plantations for biodiesel feedstocks, other industrial applications, and also as prebreeding materials in crop improvement programs.