Jatropha curcas or Physic Nut produces fruits under tropical climate that contain seeds that are an excellent source for biodiesel. This book examines ways this plant can be transformed into a successful industrial crop and viable resource for production.

Jatropha curcas or Physic Nut is a small tree (bush plant) that produces fruits under tropical climate. The fruits contained seed that are ~40% oil rich. This oil is excellent for biodiesel. The bush is a now new coming crop because it may cope with harsh environmental conditions such as semi-aridity and poor land. It is considered as one alternative for climate mitigation that does not compete with arable land normally dedicated to food crop and can be used to regain degraded land or fight desertification. This bush has been considered seriously by the international community only recently (~2006-2008), but worldwide scientists did an outstanding job to drawn Jatropha out of its semi-wild status and bring it on the industrial scene. Problems remains, but we have now a comprehensive picture of this crop and almost every technological challenged were addressed. From now, the job will have to concentrate on breeding in order to domesticate this species. Therefore, it is the right time to sum up worldwide contributions in a comprehensive book with a breeding looking to improve the chance of this plant to stabilize as a crop and to fulfil with the expectations that humans invested in it. A book with this perspective will help international community to give a step on. The book will be a broad and comprehensive look on Jatropha until the details since the book is being contributed by international experts worldwide that have already published works in the international press of Science. Illustrations, tables geographic maps, GPS location, etc are added by each contributors according to the feeling they have concerning what they think their contribution should be.

1- Biology and Reproduction Laticifers of Jatropha K.V. Krishnamurthy, Padma Venkatasubramanium, S. Lalitha Wood Anatomy of Indian Jatrophas Bir Bahadur, K.V. Krishnamurthy, E. Chamundeswari Breeding System and Pollination in Jatropha curcas: An Overview Solomon Raju and Bir Bahadur Pollen of Jatropha L.: Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Considerations Bir Bahadur, G.V.S. Murthy, M. Sujatha Embryology of Jatropha - A Review K.V. Krishnamurthy Structure and Development of Fruit and Seed of Jatropha gossypifolia l. S.M. Khasim, T.V. Ramana Rao, G. Ramesh, S. Hemalatha Fruit, Seed and Seedling characters in Jatrophas G.V.S. Murthy, E. Chamundeswari, S. Goverdhen, Bir Bahadur Genetic Improvement in Jatropha curcas through Selection and Breeding Jitendra Chikara, Aruna R. Prakash, Shaik. G. Mastan, Arup Ghosh 2-Genetic diversity of Jatropha and domestication Origin, domestication, distribution and diversity of Jatropha curcas L. N. Sunil, Vinod Kumar, K.S. Varaprasad Systematics of Indian Jatropha L. Bir Bahadur, T. Pullaiah, G.V.S. Murthy Economic and Medicinal Importance of Jatrophas T. Pullaiah, Bir Bahadur Genetic Diversity of Jatropha curcas In Southern Mexico Isidro Ovando-Medina, Lourdes Adriano-Anaya, Alfredo Vázquez-Ovando, Sonia Ruiz-González, Manuel Rincón-Rabanales, Miguel Salvador-Figueroa Relationship of the genetic diversity of Jatropha curcas in Brazil and worldwide Catarina da Fonseca Lira-Medeiros, Clícia Grativol, Paulo Cavalcanti Gomes Ferreira Towards the Domestication of Jatropha: The Integration of Sciences Nicolas Carels Karyology and Genomics of Jatropha - Current Status and Future Prospects Muppala P. Reddy, P.D.V.N. Sudheer, S.G. Mastan, Hifzur Rahman, Nicolas Carels and Bir Bahadur Studies on Jatropha curcas L and its improvement through induced mutation S.K. Datta, R.K. Pandey The use of EcoTILLING for the genetic improvement of Jatropha curcas L. Fatemeh Maghuly, Joanna Jankowicz-Cieslak, Bradly J. Till and Margit Laimer Comparative Genomics in Euphorbiaceae Rajinder Singh Chauhan and Archit Sood Proteomic perspectives on understanding and improving Jatropha curcas L. Manish Raorane, Siam Popluechai, Angharad M. R. Gatehouse, Ajay Kohli 3-Jatropha germplasm Genetic Diversity, Molecular Markers and Marker Assisted Breeding in Jatropha M. Sujatha Interspecific Hybridization in the Genus Jatropha M. Sujatha, Bir Bahadur, T. Papi Reddy Genetic Affinities of Jatropha with other Euphorbiaceous Taxa M. Sujatha, T. Papi Reddy, V. Sathaiah, Bir Bahadur Jatropha germplasm manipulation in Brazil Marques Daniela de Argollo, Siqueira José Walter, Colombo Augusto Carlos, Ferrari Aparecida Roseli Conservation strategies and management of Jatropha germplasm J Radhamani and N Sivaraj 4- Biotechnology Micropropagation of Jatropha curcas for large scale multiplication of quality germplasm Aneesha Singh, J Chikara Jatropha tissue culture: A critical review on present scenario and future prospects Nitish Kumar, Muppala P Reddy Tissue culture studies of Jatropha species: A Review E. Chamundeswari, N. Rama Swamy Genetic Transformation of Jatropha curcas: Current status and future prospects Nitish Kumar, Muppala P. Reddy, M. Sujatha Improvement of Jatropha oil by genetic transformation Jian Ye, Yan Hong, Jing Qu, Chunming Wang Genome structure of Jatropha curcas L. Shusei Sato, Hideki Hirakawa, Suguru Tsuchimoto, Hiroe Sakai, Nakako Shibagaki, Sachihiro Matsunaga, Kiichi Fukui, Satoshi Tabata Towards the Metabolomics of Jatropha curcas L. Quézia de Sant’Anna, Julyana Rosa Machado, Raquel Pantoja Rodrigues, Marcela Oliveira Nogueira, Jochen Junker.