Hi, I had an interesting meeting this morning with someone who is extracting oil from the marula nut (Scelerocarya birrea). Have a look at www.marula.org.za for more information on this - google it and you'll find a whole lot of other really good info. Apparently you can get 10 trees/ha, 2000tpa/ha of fruit, 30% of which is nut and 25% of nut is oil, this is hearsay and needs to be confirmed (anyone got a reference?). They are indigenous and all over the Limpopo Province, the fruit pulp (used for brewing a form of beer, gives me a headache) is prized above the nut, although there is a market for the oil. It may be a better option compared with Jatropha - you could probably get the oil by tomorrow. I'm going to get some and make a few test batches.
Regards, Duncan > Hello Doug, Isabel, > Edible provenances of Jatropha curcas from Veracruz and Quintana Roo > States of Mexico were investigated by Makkar, Becker and Schmook of the > University of Hohenheim and found to be non toxic to humans after > roasting. Phorbol esters, the major toxic constituents of Jatropha, were > altogether absent in three of the seed samples and the contents of trypsin > inhibitors, phorbol esters, phytate were all lower in the roasted nuts, > which tasted like roasted peanuts. However, lectin activity was not > reduced by roasting. They concluded that this non-toxic variety could be > cultivated in developing countries for their edible oil, and seedcake as > fodder. > http://www.jatropha.de/schmook1.htm > > The presence of a new tumor promoter in the seed oil of Jatropha curcas L > has been reported in the Japanese Journal of Cancer Research by Hirota M, > M Suttajit et al from Thailand but there is not much else besides this > singular study. A debate is now on in the new state of Chattisgarh in > India about the advisability of cultivating Jatropha because of this. > http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/113032/1/1897 > > Those interested in Jatropha would do well to visit www.jatropha.de run by > the redoubtable Reinhard Henning (who incidentally, used to post to this > list- please see archives) and The Centre for Jatropha Promotion > www.jatrophaworld.com > > The former site provides links to Jatropha developments in Egypt, > Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Malawi, Namibia, Republique de Cote de > Ivoire, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda besides > other countries. > > Regards > balaji > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
