Stovers,
The cautionary notes given by Nat M. and Otto F. should be taken
seriously. However, they also need to provide scientific evidence to
support their statements.
Evidence implying the OPPOSITE of what was stated is the following:
from http://www.tnau.ac.in/tech/swc/evjatropha.pdf
Like Castor oil, the Jatropha oil and cake contain traces of
toxins. The components associated with toxicity can be
denatured or inactivated by heat. The toxic components in
Jatropha cake are curcin a phytotoxin similar to ricin in castor
and HCN in young Sorghum leaves and Tapioca rind and
purgative oil as in castor and croton oil. Heat treatment or the
combination of heat and chemical (NaOH and NaOCl)
treatments can inactivate the above toxic components.
**** Apparently heat destroys the toxins. Good news that has been out
of sight. Publication date is not evident.
--
Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Known to some as: Dr. TLUD Doc Professor
Phone (USA): 309-452-7072 SKYPE: paultlud Email: [email protected]
Quoting Nat of WorldStove <[email protected]>:
Dear All
Today's jatropha thread has been a grand discussion. I would like to
express some concerns however regarding jatropha.
There are many jatropha genotypes. The primary reason people are
planting Jatropha is because it can be used to
produce a high quality fuel oil. While I will not address my
concerns regarding the introduction of non native species into certain
ecosytems , other concernes are more pertinent to this list and
should be mentioned. It should be noted that many jatropha
genotypes are highly toxic. Short term,exposure to these toxins can
cause death and blindness, and the long term
carcinogenic effects of phorbol esters found in many genotypes of
jatropha have been documented for years. While there
are some less toxic varieties of jatorpha (native to Mexico) they do
not have the same crop yields as their more toxic relatives
and so it is safe to assume that much of the available waste will be
of the more toxic variety.
In the cases where jatropha is being considered not only as a fuel
for cooking, but also to produce biochar it should be noted
that the resultant content of PAH?s in some of the biochar produced
with jatropha is well beyond what is considered safe for
humans and should not be used in soils intended for food production.
I am all in favor of using agricultural residues and waste but would
like to echo Otto?s wise advice to test before we promote
the use of new fuels. After all plastics also work very well in
gasifieing stoves but I would certainly not advise using them. While
there has been talk of setting up stove test centers I would also
recommend centers to test for the safety of fuels intended
for cooking and fuels intended for biochar production.
Cautiously yours,
Nat of WorldStove
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