J. curcas L., a potential bioenergy crop 70 million years old, is a monoecious, decidu­ous perennial small tree or shrub belonging to family Euphorbiaceae, to the tribe Jatropheae of the subfamily Crotonoideae. In 1737 Karl von Linne first described and in 1753 classified J. curcas. The genus name Jatropha comes from the Greek words “iatros” meaning doctor and “trophe” meaning food. It is commonly known as “Physic nut” in English and “Ricino d’inferno” in Italy. Southern Mexico and parts of central America are believed to be centers of origin of Jatropha (Dehgan and Webster 1979). The plant was later spread by the Portuguese settlers to other continents of the world (Gubitz et al. 1999). However in some parts of the world, including the United States, Australia, South Africa, and Puerto Rico, Jatropha is recognized as an invasive spe­cies (Global Invasive Species Programme 2008).

The plant initially develops five roots; one thick deep primary taproot and four lateral roots, followed by many straight secondary roots (Heller 1996). The stem arises from perennial root stock, has reddish or grey bark which exudates latex white in color. Generally, the tree attains a height between 6.0 and 18.0 ft but under favorable conditions can grow up to 30.0 ft. Leaves are green, simple, petiolated, having 3-5 lobed ovate lamina and are alternate in arrangement. Inflorescence is terminal bearing unisexual flowers. The fruit is ellipsoid capsule, containing three seeds. Seeds are 1-2 cm long, granular, and black in color. Agents of pollination are beetles, honeybees, and moths (Bhattacharya et al. 2005; Henning 2007). In flower­ing, the male flowers open 1 or 2 days after opening of female ones, with former lasting only for 1 day. Plants bear fruits from midsummer to late winter. In indoor cultivation seed never sets unless the flowers are pollinated by hand.

The seeds become mature in 2-4 months with the capsule changing from green to yellow. Upon seed maturity, fleshy exocarp dries and three bivalved cocci are formed. The seeds contain oil which contains 21 % saturated and 79 % unsaturated fatty acids (Heller 1996; Gubitz et al. 1999; Deng et al. 2010). Linoleic and oleic acids are the main components of oil (List and Horhammer 1979). The seeds also contain fructose, glucose, galactose, raffinose, saccharose, stachyose, and protein. Arachidic, curcasin, myristic, stearic, and palmitic acids are also present in Jatropha (Perry 1980). Jatropha also contains toxic compounds such as curcin and phorbolester.

17.2 Plantation and Ecological Requirements of Jatropha curcas

The main inputs for J. curcas production are land, local climatic conditions, planta­tion establishment, and management practices. The outputs are the fruits, seeds, wood, and other biomass elements (Achten et al. 2008).