BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF JATROPHA (JATROPHA CURCAS L.) ACCESSION IN EASTERN HIMALAYA, INDIA

Abstract

Adaptive trials on J. curcas were undertaken at ICAR RC for NEH Region, Jharnapani during 2007-2012 with 11 accessions of Jatropha collected from different parts of India. The aim of the study was to determine the source variation in J. curcas accessions collected from 11 locations of Nagaland and to identify the best sources to be utilized for reforestation and future genetic improvement work. All the accessions of jatropha differed significantly in the respect of seed yield, oil content and oil yield, crude protein, cellulose, hemi-cellulose and enzyme activities. The provenance Molvum produced significantly higher seed yield (0.88 t ha^-1). Such variation among the different accession may be due to different intensities of natural selection acting upon the traits in their natural habitat. Among all accessions of jatropha, Molvum recorded significantly higher cellulose (23.1%) followed by Rangapahar. Similarly, the maximum hemicellulose was recorded with Molvum which was statistically at par with Piphema, Ruzaphema, Rangapahar but significantly superior over all the remaining accessions, while, the lowest hemicellulose (10.8%) was obtained with Seithekiema. Significantly maximum lignin of 23.3% was obtained under Molvum but it was statistically comparable to Rangapahar. The minimum lignin (13.1%) was found under Seithekiema. Crude protein content was recorded maximum with Molvum (15.7%) which was comparable with Jharnapani, Mediziphema and Ruzaphema and significantly higher to rest of the other accession.