Comparative Yeild and Oil Quality of Toxic and Non-Toxic Mexican Jatropha curcas Grown in the Same Agroclimatic Conditions

Jatropha curcas brings attention across the developing world for biodiesel production since it grows in tropical and subtropical climates with no other competing food uses. This crop is gaining popularity in Mexico for biofuel production. Currently, there are not many reports on the native varieties and their yield to estimate the feasibility of the particular genetic resource to use it as an economic crop. So in this part of work an agronomical evaluation of yield, oil content, fatty acid types and biodiesel conversion from the two native varieties of Jatropha curcas from Mexico were compared while being produced in the same agro-climatic condition. The varieties used were based on the phorbol ester content like toxic and nontoxic varieties collected from Yucatan and Veracruz. It was found that the oil content in the seeds of toxic variety was 57% and oil content of the nontoxic variety was 54% and also the seed yield is higher. The fatty acid content also varies among the two varieties like 21% and 23% in toxic and nontoxic varieties respectively. Again in the nontoxic variety the content of monosaturated fatty acid was higher, which suggests that better quality biodiesel may be expected from this genotype. Transestrification of the two kinds of oil was done using KOH as a catalyst, but no significant difference was observed in the conversion of biodiesel among the two types of oil from the two genotypes.

Isolation,Identification and Germplasm Preservation of Different Native Spirulina Species from Western Mexico

Spirulina is an edible algae and has a wide range of pharmaceutical applications in addition to its nutritional value. Isolation and identification of several Spirulina species were conducted in the western part of Mexico especially in the state of Jalisco. The purification strategy consisted of five optimized processing steps: 1) washing and centrifugation, 2) chemical treatment, 3) micromanipulation, 4) serial dilution, and 5) plating. Four species were isolated from different locations and two out of these four species were identified taxonomically up to the species level: Spirulina subsalsa and S. major. For short term conservation (30 days), the strains were maintained in liquid and solid agar medium at 10?C and 4?C. For medium term (few months), they were preserved in solid medium under a dried condition as agar flakes and for long term, cryopreservation was employed by using 5% and 10% DMSO, glycerol and methanol as osmoprotectants in liquid nitrogen. For short term preservation nearly 90% liquid and 100% agar recovered strains were viable after one month at both temperatures. In the case of the agar flakes, cells were viable after three months of conservation at room temperature. Cryopreservation did not give any suitable results after three months of conservation. Variable and two-step improved cryopreservation processes are now in progress for conservation.