Origin and environmental requirements
Uses
Jatropha curcas is a species with multiple uses. It is a non-food crop, toxic to humans and animals when consuming. All plant parts contain toxins such as phorbol esters, curcins and trypsin inhibitors, while the seeds are considered the most toxic part of the plant making the produced oil non edible.
Jatropha is gaining a global interest for the production of biodiesel. The oil is either used directly in adapted engines powering local grain mills, oil presses, water pumps and small generators, or modified by trans-esterification with methanol or ethanol to produce regular fuel suitable for high-performance diesel engines. Moreover, the possibility to produce biogas by means of anaerobic digestion of all jatropha components is being investigated.
Apart from this important use of Jatropha as a bio-oil producing energy crop, that species offers several additional uses and, thus, advantages.
The plant can be used to control erosion and to increase soil moisture retention. It can be grown in farms as a commercial crop or on the boundaries of agricultural fields as a living fence, protecting them against damages by browsing animals because it is unpalatable to livestock.
The woody by-products (pruning waste, fruit hulls) can be used as combustible, reducing the pressure on remaining forests and woodlots.
Seed cake -a by-product of oil extraction- contains curcin, a highly toxic protein making it unsuitable for animal feed. Nevertheless, seed cake is an excellent fertilizer (rich in N-P-K), is useful as combustible and can be digested to produce biogas (CH4).
Various parts of the plant have traditional medicinal uses for both human and veterinary purposes. The oil is a strong purgative, widely used as an antiseptic for cough, skin diseases, dysentery, diarrhea, paralysis, and a pain reliever from rheumatism. Jatropha latex can heal wounds and also has antimicrobial properties.
In rural areas, jatropha’s oil can be used for soap and cosmetics production, for the manufacture of candles, as lamp oil, as fuel for cooking and lighting, as boiler fuel for industrial purposes and as a viable substitute for diesel.
