Jatropha Curcas

Jatropha curcas, is a perennial poisonous shrub, Barbados nut or Physic nut with a height of up to 5 meters.
The plant originating in Central America, and it has been spreead to other countries in tropical ang sub-tropical countries as well and is widely grown in Asia and Africa. It is an uncultivated wild species, a non-food plants. In the Philippines it is widely use as a living fence to protect the gardens and any other fields from animals, it is also use believed as a deterent to snakes, it grows in desert and even grow with less water and as such does not compete with food crops, the animals don't like to eat the leaves so they can grow well.

The seeds contains 30% oil that can be process to produced high quality bio-diesel fuel, usable for a standard diesel engine.

We try to plant Jatropha curcas, but the problem is the market. There is no known market yet in the Philippines, so we stop planting Jatropha, in the bakyard of our house Jatropha is a common plant.