‘INSIGHT’ an International Journal of Science(ISSN: 2394-0360); Volume 1 2014

Characterization and Preliminary Evaluation of Jatropha curcas L. Germplasm under the Natural
Climatic Condition of New Bhusur, Jharkhand (India)

1
Chander Bhan Arora, 1Rajeev Sharma *1Devendra Kumar Srivastava and 2Vivek Sharma
1
Department of Biology, D.A.V. College, Hoshiarpur-146001, Punjab (India);
2Akal School of Biotechnology, Eternal University Baru Sahib-173101, H.P. (India);

(*Corresponding author: devsrivastv@gmail.com)

(Received: Sep-25, 2014; Revised: Nov-29, 2014; Accepted: Dec-02, 2014)

ABSTRACT
The present research was mainly focused on characterization and preliminary evaluation of Jatropha
curcas L. germplasm, which was collected from different parts of India and being maintained at New
Bhusur, National Jatropha Germplasm Garden (NJGG), NBPGR, Ranchi (Jharkhand). Under the natural
climatic condition of New Bhusur germplasm evaluation data suggests that accessions collected from
their native states of Bihar (BIH-Nawa-0206-C-24, 194.87 g) and Chhattisgarh (CHH-Raip-0206-C-28,
189.52 g; CHH-Raip-0206-C-27, 180.39 g) were top performers for their seed yield character.
Key words: Jatropha curcas, accessions, evaluation and characterization.

INTRODUCTION heynei Balakr., / J. heterophylla Hook., J.

The Jatropha or physic nut is a small tree
or large herb which can reach a hight of upto 5m.
The name Jatropha derived from the Greek word
‘Jatros’ means ’Doctor’ and ‘trophe’ means
‘Nutrition’ and it belongs to tribe Joannesieae of
Crotonoideae in the family Euphorbiaceae and
contains approximately 175 species (Heller 1996).
The genus is cosmopolitan in distribution except
in arctic regions; they are distributed in the
tropical and subtropical regions of Africa,
America and Himalayas; the mountains of
Western and Eastern Ghats and plains of South
India (Krishnan and Paramathma 2009; Makkar
and Becker, 2009). About twelve species of
Jatropha was reported from India namely
Jatropha curcas L., J. gossypifolia L., J.
glandulifera Roxb. / J. glauca Vahl., J. multifida
L., J. tanjorensis Ellis and Saroja., J. podagrica
Hook., J. integerrima Jacq., J. pandurifolia Andr.
/ J. hastata Jacq., J. villosa / J. peltata Wight. / J.
wightiana Wight. and Muell., J. nana Dalz., J.
maheswari Subram. and Nayar.
Besides the current interest in the use of
the seed oil for biofuel, the plant parts such as
root, stem, bark, latex, leaves, fruit and seeds are
used for the treatment of many diseases in
different parts of the world (Vrema and Gaur
2009). In India and many African countries the
Jatropha plant is used as a living hedge to keep
out grazing livestock, since it not browsed by
cattle. As a soil binder, it has proven in reducing
the erosion of soil by rain water (Henning 2008).
Morphologically depending upon the zone
of plantation, soil and climatic conditions
Jatropha varies significantly in its seed
production (Ginwal et al. 2004, Yi et al. 2014).
Currently little information has been published on
production variability between the provenances of
Jatropha. An attempt has been made on the extent
and kind of diversity present in the genus
Jatropha curcas L. collections maintained at
National Jatropha Germplasm Garden (NJGG),

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 ‘INSIGHT’ an International Journal of Science(ISSN: 2394-0360); Volume 1
National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources
(NBPGR), Regional center, Ranchi (Jharkhand).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
About 219 accessions were growing and
being maintained at New Bhusur (NJGG,
NBPGR, Ranchi, Jharkhand) under the research
scheme funded by CSIR (NMTLI Project on
Genetic Improvement of Jatropha Curcas for
adaptability & Oil Yields). Material for the
present study comprised of only 204 accessions of
J. curcas, almost of same age group (3 year old)
and it includes 3 replicas per accession in
randomized block design (RBD). Rest of the 15
accessions were dropped as they were differ in
age and most of them re-transplanted in past
season after the destruction and damages caused
by wind, rain, insects-pests and termites.
Accessions studied were assembled partly through
collection made within the political boundary of
Bihar, Jharkhand and neighboring states. Besides,
it involves the pooling of collections available at
different research stations in India. The present
accessions represent 22 states with their respective
accessions, these areas of Andhra Pradesh (12),
Assam (7), Bihar (10), Chattisgarh (11), Goa (3),
Gujarat (19), Haryana (8), Himachal Pradesh (6),
Jharkhand (13), Karnataka (3), Kerala (10),
Madhya Pradesh (11), Maharastra (8), Nagaland
(3), Orissa (9), Punjab (4), Rajasthan (12), Tamil
Nadu (10), Tripura (2), Uttarakhand (18), Utter
Pradesh (15) and West Bengal (10).
For evaluation, 19 important descriptors
were considered out of which 11 characters viz.
number of primary branches (pb), number of
peduncle branching (pdb), number of male
flowers per inflorescence (mfpi), number of
female flowers per inflorescence (ffpi), male
flower to female flower ratio (♂‫)♀׃‬, fruit stalk
length (fsl), fruit per cluster (fpc), fruit length to
fruit breadth ratio (l:b), seed dimension i.e. length
2014
: breadth : width (l:b:w), weight of 100 seeds and
seed yield per plant (ypp) were accessed
statistically to observe general range (r), mean (χ),
standard error of mean (SEM) and variability
(CV%). Observation values of r, χ, SEM, and
CV% are presented in Table 1. Other 8 descriptors
and descriptor states were evaluated for general
characters are provided in Table 2. The scoring
for these traits was done as per the procedure
given in ‘Minimal descriptors of J. curcas L’.
(Sunil et al. 2010).
RESULTS
Observations and results of 204
accessions of J. curcas which were accessed
statistically, showed wide range of variability in
their quantitative characters (Table 1.). An
average of 4 primary branches (~ 4.14) was found
to be common among the accessions, which range
from 2 to 17 primary branches per plant. Here,
number of leaf lobe varied from 0 to 6 (with an
average value of 4.33), however four lobed leaves
were observed more in number ,while 2 to 4 lobed
leaves on the same plant were common.
Inflorescences were reported for number of
peduncle branching (pdb), which varied from 1 to
4 in number with mean value (χ) of 2.62 pdb per
inflorescence. Among the studied accessions,
number of male flowers per inflorescence (mfpi)
ranged between 46 and 197, whereas number of
female flowers per inflorescence (ffpi) was ranged
from 1-8. Average values for mfpi and ffpi were
observed as 91.17 and 4.43, respectively. Flower
ratio was observed to vary from 7 to 81 male
flowers per female flower (i.e. ♂‫=♀׃‬7:1-81:1).
However, 18 to 37 male flowers per female flower
were observed more in number and its mean value
was 19.7 for flower ratio. Fruit characters such as
stalk length (fsl), number of fruit per cluster (fpc)
and ratio of fruit length to breadth (l:b) was
observed (at physiologically matured stage i.e
yellowish-brown coloured fruits) to ranges betwe-
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 ‘INSIGHT’ an International Journal of Science(ISSN: 2394-0360); Volume 1
-en 1.5-7 cm, 1-8 and 0.12-1.98 respectively;
while their mean value was reported as 3.68 cm,
4.11 and 1.18. Physical parameters of seeds in
2014
terms of its dimension i.e. length (l), breadth (b)
and width (w) was recorded with an average value
of 1.57 cm (l), 1.07 cm (b) and 0.70 cm (w),
which varies as 0.67-2.10 cm (l), 0.43-1.73 cm (b)
and 0.30-0.77 cm (w) among the accessions. Mean
value for dry weight of 100 seeds was measured
to be 36.73 g, while its range varies significantly
between 26.32 g to 48.78 g. Seed yield per plant
(ypp) was observed with an average value of
171.81 g, which ranges from 42.13 g to 327.52 g
seeds per plant. High variability (CV %) was
observed for flower ratio (38.20) followed by
number of male flowers per inflorescence (mfpi
=32.3) and seed yield (28.03g) from single plant
(Table 1.).
Morphologically accessions were also
recorded with large variation in their field
(qualitative) characters. Branching habit was
observed as intermediate (112, 54.90%), basal
(51, 25%), entire (7, 3.43%) and top (3, 1.47%)
type and rest were variable (31, 15.20%). Leaf
characters such as pigmentation of emerging
leaves were differentiated on the basis of grayish
purple (176, 86.27%), green grey purple (8,
3.92%), red (8, 3.92%), green (7, 3.43%) and
yellowish green (5, 2.45%) colour, whereas
petiole base colour was reported as light purple
(191, 93.63%), green (9, 4.41%) and dark purple
(4, 1.96%). During the peak vegetative growth
stage, with main stem on young tertiary branches,
leaf angles were reported to be either obtuse (>
450, 112, 54.90%) or acute (< 450, 92, 45.10%).
On the other hand colour of main stem (collar
region) was observed as grey (120, 58.82%) or
green (84, 41.18%). Observation recorded on
tertiary branches shows differences among the
accessions for auxiliary (82, 40.19%) and terminal
(122, 59.80%) inflorescences; at the same time
inflorescences compactness was high for compact
(118, 57.84%) followed by semi-loose (66,
32.35%), loose (12, 5.88%) and very compact (8,
3.92%) type of characters. Physiologically matur-
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 ‘INSIGHT’ an International Journal of Science(ISSN: 2394-0360); Volume 1
-ed (i.e. yellowish-brown) fruits were observed
and reported to be either oval (128, 62.74%) or
round (76, 37.25%) in their shape.
DISCUSSION
Variation in number of male-female flowers, dry
weight of 100 seeds and seed yield was clearly
evident from the study. Observed values of
quantitative characters such as Male flowers and
female flowers per inflorescence shows some
closeness to the findings of Raju and Ezradanam
2014
(2002), Tewari et al. (2007), Chang-wei et al.
(2007) and Bhattacharya (2005) which are also in
agreement with recent reports of Nietsche et al.
(2013), Kumar and Singh (2014), and Gayakvad
et al. 2014.
All the parameters studied exhibited considerable
amount of variation in the field characters. High
number of primary branches, fruit per cluster,
high weight of 100 seeds and high seed yield are
the few important characters that can be used as
major selection indices. Selection from early
plantations of Jatropha can be made on the basis
of these characters. Analysis of seed yield per
plant shows that accessions are highly variable in
their seed production. It may be due to
performance under the natural biotic and non-
biotic conditions of Jharkhand which is different
from other collection sites/ states.
CONCLUSION
The Under the agro climatic zone of
Jharkhand a group of characters was used to
identify the best performer includes accessions
showing higher number of primary branches (> 8),
higher number of fruit per cluster (> 8) and higher
weight of 100 seeds (> 40 g). Analysis of seed
yield per plant shows that accession 566082
(NBPGR-BIH-Nawa-0206-C-24, 194.87 g),
566085 (NBPGR-CHH-Raip-0206-C-28, 189.52
g), 566084 (NBPGR-CHH-Raip-0206-C-27,
180.39 g), 574422 (NBPGR-CHH-Durg-0206-C-
29, 176.99 g), and 574421 (NBPGR-CHH-
Mahasm-0206-C-26, 165 g) are growing well as
compare to other accessions at New Bhusur,
NJGG, Jharkhand. These accessions were mostly
from Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
The present data reveals the vast potential
of existing germplasm in developing genotypes
with desirable traits. However efforts should be
made to broaden genetic base of Jatropha by
collecting landraces having desired economic
attributes, such as higher number of primary
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 ‘INSIGHT’ an International Journal of Science(ISSN: 2394-0360); Volume 1
branches, higher number of fruit per cluster,
higher weight of 100 seeds, high yield and insect-
pest resistance. In this regard coordinated research
is needed to attain improved yield. Further
improvement will be successful only after
accessing our native genetic strength.
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