Relevance of Industrial Wastes from Jatropha curcas L. Seed in Agricultural Biotechnology

This paper investigated the usefulness of seed cake and husk as industrial wastesgenerated from Jatrophacurcas in biotechnology. Seeds were dehulled, milled and processed for biodiesel production at department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, New York, USA.Proximate analysis of the wastes generated (seed husk and cake) was carried out the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT) Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. All concentrations were determined using the Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrophotometer Agilent 4200 (MP-AES) model. Statistical analysis was done on the Minitab software 16.The cake contained 35% moisture, 17% ash, 40% lipid, 70% protein and 78% carbohydrate.However, fibre content in husk (27%) was higher than in cake (16%). The husk also contained fairly high amount of carbohydrate (47.8%).Phosphorus was high in both husk and cake (17.1% and 22.3% respectively). The cake contained higher quantities of micronutrients than the husk with significant differences (t=2.243, p=0.05). The seed cake and husks are rich organic sources of manure as they contain basic nutrients needed by plants to grow. The high amount of protein and carbohydrate makes them perfect candidates as animal feeds when detoxified. From all indicators except in fibre and potassium contents, the seed cake is better than the seed husk. The combined strength and properties of both seed husk and cake should be exploited in Agricultural biotechnology. The two wastes are relevant in both crop and animal production when used as organic manure and animal feeds respectively