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 (1H 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 (∼45%). These J. curcas 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.