Journal of Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques
Open Access

Abstract

Jatropha curcas is commonly called as ?physic nut?, grows in wild and also cultivated in many parts of the world (Central and South America, Africa and Asia), because of the potential application of Jatropha seeds for the production of biodiesel. Jatropha plant can grow readily in arid regions with an annual yield of up to 5 tonnes of seeds per hectare. The seed kernels contain 30-40% oil and seed cake is a byproduct generated from the oil extraction of seed in a biodiesel processing plant. The Jatropha seed cake (JSC) is considerably high in protein content (50-60%), and it also contains a significant amount of anti-nutrients like phorbol esters, phytate, cyanogenic glucosides, phenols, tannins, lectins, trypsin inhibitors and saponins. The phorbol esters are the main toxic compounds having tumor promoting properties and found to be toxic in animal models. Therefore unlike other edible oil seed cakes, the JSC has a limitation in using it as an animal feed. Hence the present talk will focus on the development of methods for biodetoxification of toxins and anti-nutrients by solid state fermentation using different fungal cultures. The phorbol ester content in the unfermented JSC was 0.83 mg/g and maximum degradation of phorbol esters to the extent of 75-100% was observed in case of JSC fermented with Cunninghamella echinulata CJS-90. The phytate degradation in the fermented JSC was in the range of 65-96%. There was a gradual reduction of saponin content in the JSC from 6 th to 12 th day and the reduction of saponin was in the range of 55-99% after solid state fermentation. The trypsin inhibitor activity and lectin were 1680 TIU and 0.32 HU in the unfermented JSC respectively. No trypsin inhibitor activity and lectin could be detected in JSC after 12 th day of solid state fermentation. Tannins accounted for 0.53% in unfermented JSC, and there was a marginal increase of tannins after solid state fermentation. The results indicate that biological detoxification could be a promising method to reduce anti-nutritional compounds and toxins in the JSC, and the resultant seed cake has the potential use for application as animal feed.

Biography

D. Somashekar completed his Ph.D. in the field of Biochemistry from Mysore University and postdoctoral studies from Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. He is working as a scientist in the Fermentation Technology and Bioengineering Dept, CFTRI, Mysore, a premier research organization in the world. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals. He was awarded Eureka Forbes Young scientist award for his pioneering work in the field of biotechnology. He has worked in the development of some of the new techniques developed for the isolation of potent microorganisms and development of an assay for the chitosanase enzyme and separation of chitosan oligomers after enzyme hydrolysis. Currently he is working on the development of enzymatic processes by solid and submerged fermentation by using microorganisms. He is working on the utilization of Jatropha oil seed cake and biodetoxification of toxins from the seed cake of Jatropha curcas .