Changes of Water Status and Different Responses of Osmoregulants in Jatropha Curcas L. Seedlings to Air-drought Stress

[Objective] The study aimed to investigate the changes of water status and different responses of osmoregulants during air-drought stress,to better understand mechanisms of drought resistance in Jatropha Curcas L. [Methods] The 12-day-old J. curcas seedlings were held in a climate chamber at 25/20 ℃（day/night）,16 hours illumination,and 75% of relative humidity for air-drought treatment,and the changes of water potential,osmotic potential and the content of soluble sugar,proline,betaine were measured. [Results] Water potential and osmotic potential in leaves of J. curcas seedlings dropped significantly,pressure potential lost during air-drought stress,and the contents of osmoregulants soluble sugar,proline and betaine rose significantly to different extent in the leaves and stems. [Conclusion] Osmoregulants in the leaves and stems respond differently to air-drought stress,and in general leaves are much more responsive to the drought than stems of J. curcas seedlings.

Distribution and development strategy for Jatropha curcas L. in Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Yunnan Province is the main distributing area ofJatropha curcas L. This plant is abundant in several drainage areas of the dry-hot, dry-warm and sub-humid valleys in the south subtropical area of Yunnan Province. The seeds that were picked from trees blossoming between April and May and fructifying between September and October will have large seed yield and fine quality. For developing bio-diesel stock forest ofJ. curcas in areas with adaptive climate, seeding measures for afforestation should be taken and techniques on breeding, fast-growing, and high-yielding plantation cultivation are very important.

Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha curcas L.Oil with Trace Acid Catalyst

Biodiesel produced from crude Jatropha curcas L.oil with trace sulfuric acid catalyst(0.02%-0.08% oil) was investigated at 135-184 ℃.Both esterification and transesterification can be well carried out simultane-ously.Factors affecting the process were investigated,which included the reaction temperature,reaction time,the molar ratio of alcohol to oil,catalyst amount,water content,free fatty acid(FFA) and fatty acid methyl ester(FAME) content.Under the conditions at 165 ℃,0.06%(by mass) H2SO4 of the oil mass,1.6 MPa and 20:1 methanol/oil ratio,the yield of glycerol reached 84.8% in 2 hours.FFA and FAME showed positive effect on the transesterification in certain extent.The water mass content below 1.0% did not show a noticeable effect on trans-esterification.Reaction kinetics in the range of 155 ℃ to 175 ℃ was also measured.

One-step process for production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. seeds： Optimization using Response Surface Methodology （RSM）

Jatropha curcas L. （JCL） seeds were extracted and transesterified in-situ using supercritical methanol extraction in the absence of catalyst at different temperatures （200-280℃） and pressures （8-12 MPa）, and at a fixed reaction time of 30 min with seeds-to-methanol ratio of 1：40 w/v. Design of experiment approach using five-level-two-factors design of Response Surface Methodology （RSM） was used to observe the effect of two independent variables i.e. temperature and pressure and the percent of biodiesel yield which required 13 runs. For optimization of the variables, Central Composite Rotatable Design （CCRD） was used for regression analysis and analysis of variance （ANOVA）. The optimize conditions suggested by RSM were at T = 280℃ and P = 12.04 MPa. The predicted and experimental biodicsel yields were found to be 56.8% and 59.9%, respectively, with relatively small deviation errors of 1.59%.

Effects of Aluminum Toxicity on Physiological Indices of Jatropha curcas L.Seedling

Jatropha curcas was taken as the test material,6 concentrations including 0,25,50,100,200 and 400μmol/L AlCl3,plus 3 time gradients including 7,14 and 21 d,were set to study the effects of Al^(3+)stress on the antioxidant system of Jatropha curcas L.seedling.The results showed that with the Al^(3+)treatment being applied,protein content increased first,then decreased and finally increased with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration;the soluble sugar content increased first and then decreased with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration.Under low concentration of Al^(3+)treatment,Pro content,MDA content and POD activity of Jatropha curcas L.seedling leaves changed a little,while under high concentration of Al^(3+)treatment,Pro and MDA content of Jatropha curcas L.seedling leaves rapidly accumulated,POD activity increased and they showed a trend of increase with the increase of Al^(3+)concentration;From the perspective of Al^(3+)stress time,protein content,soluble sugar content,MDA content and POD activity increased with stress time being prolonged,while Pro content decreased with stress time being prolonged.These results indicated that the leaves of Jatropha curcas L.seedlings had certain self-protection and remediation abilities under Al^(3+)stress.

Cloning and expression analysis of HXK1 gene from Jatropha curcas L.

HXK(Hexokinase)gene family and the role of JcHXK1 in Jatropha curcas L.were explored.Totally 4 HXK genes JcHXK1,JcHXK2,JcHXK3 and JcHKL1 were identified and complete ORF of JcHXK1 was cloned.Functional domain,phylogenetic evolution and low-temperature expression characteristics were analyzed.Results showed that full-length JcHXK1 cDNA was 1497 bp,encoding 498 amino acids with molecular weight of 53.81 kDa and pI of 5.03.Further phylogenetic evolutionary analysis demonstrated HXK1 protein was clustered into 6 small branches and 2 large branches.Sequence alignment showed that HXK1 contained several conserved glycine residues and hydrophobic channels.Prokaryotic expression vector of JcHXK1 was constructed and 12%SDS-PAGE detection showed that it was highly expressed in E.coli.These research was expected to lay a foundation for further gene functional verification and cold signal transduction mechanism for HXK1 in Jatropha curcas L.

Chemical constituents from leaves of Jatropha curcas

Objective:To investigate the chemical constituents from the leaves of Jatropha curcas and evaluate their inhibition on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-activated BV-2 microglia cells.Methods:The n-BuOH extract of the leaves of J.curcas was isolated by macroporous adsorption resin,silica gel,ODS,column chromatography and semi-preparative HPLC.The structures of the compounds were identified by MS,NMR,ECD,and other spectroscopic methods.In addition,anti-neuroinflammatory effects of isolated compounds were evaluated by measuring the production of nitric oxide(NO)in overactivated BV-2 cells.Results:Seventeen compounds,including(7R,8S)-crataegifin A-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(1),(8R,8’R)-arctigenin(2),arctigenin-4’-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(3),(-)-syringaresinol(4),syringaresinol-4’-O-β-Dglucopyranoside(5),(-)-pinoresinol(6),pinoresinol-4’-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(7),buddlenol D(8),(2R,3R)-dihydroquercetin(9),(2S,3S)-epicatechin(10),(2R,3S)-catechin(11),isovitexin(12),naringenin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(13),chamaejasmin(14),neochamaejasmin B(15),isoneochamaejasmin A(16),and tomentin-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(17)were isolated and identified.Compounds 2,4and 8 significantly inhibited the release of NO in BV-2 microglia activated by LPS,with IC50values of18.34,29.33 and 26.30μmol/L,respectively.Conclusion:Compound 1 is a novel compound,and compounds 2,3,8,14–17 are isolated from Jatropha genus for the first time.In addition,the lignans significantly inhibited NO release and the inhibitory activity was decreased after glycosylation.

麻风树生理生态学研究

麻风树是一种具有多种用途的灌木,因其种子富含的油脂可以转变为生物柴油,所以成为一种很有潜力的生物质能源作物。麻风树的研究最先开始在其药用价值上,随着世界能源物资的逐渐短缺,人们开始四处搜寻可替代能源,麻风树种子油的优良特性,引起世界各国的高度关注,对麻风树各方面的研究也越来越多。就现有文献报道看来,研究主要集中在种质资源遗传多样性评价,组织培养方面,对种子油的研究也有一些报道。但这些研究还不够全面透彻,因此本文就麻风树的自然分布环境状态、受环境影响的生物学特性、栽培及技术措施的应用、受环境因素影响的遗传多样性变化以及生理生化变化等方面的研究进行了总结。对目前科学研究及产业发展方面所存在的问题及解决方法提出了建议。

林业生物柴油可持续发展研究进展

林业生物柴油作为可替代柴油的生物质能源之一,已在中国、印度、马来西亚、印度尼西亚与泰国等国家得到快速发展,其发展是否可持续值得重点关注。在概述主要国家林业生物柴油发展现状的基础上,基于2010年以来的国内外相关研究,分别从经济、环境、社会3个方面分析了当前林业生物柴油发展的可持续性,探讨了影响其可持续发展的关键因素。结果表明:当前林业生物柴油发展的可持续性较弱,绝大多数生产项目经济效益为负值;温室气体(GHG)减排效益明显,与石化柴油相比可减少49%~85%,但SO2、NOx等污染物的排放明显高于石化柴油,环境综合影响仍然较大;社会效益尚不明显;原料供应系统决定了当前林业生物柴油发展的经济和环境可持续性。因此,攻克良种选育、高效栽培关键技术体系、高值化副产品开发等关键技术问题,建立多联产产业发展模式是实现林业生物柴油可持续发展的重要途径。此外,提高全生命周期评价(LCA)清单数据质量和建立综合评价指标体系可保证可持续性评价结果的准确性。