Eighteen different provenances of Jatropha curcas from countries in West and East Africa, North and Central America, and Asia were characterized for nutrient and antinutritional factors. The mean weight of the 18 seed provenances was 0.64 ± 0.10 g (mean ± sd). The kernel forms a large proportion of the seed and accounts for 61.3% ± 3.1%. There were large variations in the contents of CP (19−31%; 26.0% ± 3.2%), lipid (43−59%; 53.0% ± 4.8%), neutral detergent fiber (3.5−6.1%; 5.0% ± 0.87%), and ash (3.4−5.0%; 4.2% ± 0.52%) in kernels. The gross energy of kernels was relatively similar (28.5−31.2 MJ/kg; 30.1 ± 0.80 MJ/kg). Trypsin inhibitor activity in the defatted kernels (meal) varied from 18.4−27.5 mg of trypsin inhibited/g. Similarly a wide variation was observed for saponins (1.8%−3.4% as diosgenin equivalent), phytate (6.2%−10.1% as phytic acid equivalent), and lectin activity, inverse of minimum amount of the sample in milligrams per milliliter of the assay which produced agglutination (0.85−6.85 using a latex agglutination test and 51.3−204 using a hemagglutination assay) in the meals. Tannins, amylase inhibitor, glucosinolates, and cyanogens were not detected in any of the meals. Phorbol esters were not detected in the seeds collected in Papantla, Mexico, whereas the level of phorbol esters in the remaining 17 provenances ranged from 0.87 to 3.32 mg/g of kernel. Keywords: Jatropha curcas; physic nut; nutrients; trypsin inhibitor; lectins; phorbol esters; phytate

No abstract

Palaeobiological evidence indicates that gymnosperms were wind-pollinated and that insect pollination began in angiosperms in the Lower Cretaceous (ca. 135 mya) leading to close associations between higher plants and their pollinators. Cycads, which were widespread and pervasive throughout the Mesozoic (250-65 mya) are among the most primitive living seed-plants found today. Because pollination by beetles and by thrips has now been detected in several modern cycads, it is attractive to speculate that some insects and cycads had already developed similar mutualistic interactions in the Triassic (250-205 mya), long before the advent of angiosperms. We also draw attention to another key factor in this insect-plant relationship, namely secondary, defensive plant substances which must always have controlled interspecific interactions. Cycads mainly produce toxic azoglucosides and neurotoxic non-protein amino acids (e.g. BMAA), which apparently are crucial elements in the development and maintenance of mutualism (pollination) and parasitism (herbivory) by cycad-linked herbivores. We now add new results on the uptake and storage of the main toxin, cycasin, of the Mexican cycad Zamia furfuracea by its pollinator, the weevil Rhopalotria mollis, and by a specialist herbivore of Zamia integrifolia, the aposematic Atala butterfly Eumaeus atala.

No abstract