The Organic Benefits Of Jatropha curcas

"Jatropha curcas" has been know to be a native plant originated from tropical area of the America. Through domestication the plant was dispersed to Mexico, Argentina which are within the same territory or close to America. Now, "Jatropha curcas" can be found most tropical Africa . India and other close areas of China are also producing it in large scale farming.
Wikipedia.org

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My Historic & Primitive Idea About "Jatropha curcas".

My small knowledge of Jatropha before this studies, I know the plant to be prolific in breeding. Though we never cultivated some in large quantity, since by then we didn't know its uses much. But in those days, our grandparents were using "Jatropha curcas as boundaries in farmlands. One premitive usage of Jatropha I know in those days was using it as candle for sleeping. We could arrange the seeds on a one of a broom or a stick, dried for the whole day. In the night, it's lighted as candle which could burn like candle. It could sustain us for the whole night. The fluid from the branches and buds could combine with the leave of cotton wool and wood ash for cleaning our teeth. A good source of antibiotics that kill bacteria in the mouth. So, when there is a wound in the mouth, that fluid substance could kill the those bacteria in the wound surface.

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Biochemical Studies of Jatropha curcas.

No wonder those primitive ideas of using Jatropha seeds as local lightening candle can be transcended into usable biodiesel and diesel engine for jets. The fuel from Jatropha curcas is called biofuel because it's extracted from living organism, that's plant. The seeds when crushed are good source of fuel to be used by any machine that use diesel. The same crushed seeds are converted into diesel engine for jets to run. This biodiesel is very economical comparably to the original diesel that are used in vehicles in terms of fuel prices. Again, how many jets are in existence that exit for flight per day, only few to burn this diesel engine. One of the challenges that the whole World is facing now is the *climatic changes due to the damages caused to the ozone layer. The problem can be ascribed to the excessive release of carbondioxide into the atmosphere. But, studies show that if we are able to cultivate Jatropha in excess, they could absorb most carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a situation known as "sequestering." Wikipedia.org

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The Environmental & Economic factors lowering Jatropha production.
Whether we can patronize in Jatropha production for this biodiesel and diesel engine or not is one question we should ask ourselves. Though the Jatropha plant is hardier or resistance to adverse weather conditions, especially excessive sunshine, that's the main reason they are able to survive in most of African countries. Yet, the plant still need large quantities of water to produce enough fruits and seeds, the main idea for commercial production of Jatropha for biofuel. As far as the plant is able to thrive well in most soils doesn't mean that it can produce large quantities of fruits on any soil. If we want Jatropha to produce many fruits then we should get fertile lands for cultivation. How many farm lands are reclaimable? For most of lands for farming are through inheritance and for only peasant farming. It becomes difficult to get that vast lands to start up Jatropha production for commercial purposes.

Economically, one can say that to be a ble to produce "Jatropha curcas" seeds for conversion into biodiesel and diesel engine, it needs great sum of money pump into that large scale farming. Therefore, where are the funds to mobilize for labour work; that's tilling the land and all the cultural practices that will go into the farming before the seeds will harvested for crushing before processing for biofuels. After the harvest, I don't know how much money will go into the processing of the seeds before the biodiesel is extracted. The whole thing look very cumbersome and tedious to work out with. Though the plant has been proved and tested for been able to convert to biodiesel. Despite all these challenges, we can weigh that of the cost involved of harnessing petroleum products with this Jatropha production for biofuel and that will give us the best option whether to patronize or not.