Biophysicochemical Evaluation and Micropropagation Studies on Neem for Biodiesel Production.

In this experiment the seed oils of 30 Neem (Azadirachta indica. A. juss) biotypes were screened and evaluated for their physio-chemical parameters for oil content, biodiesel yield, density, viscosity, iodine value , free fatty acid, saponification value, flash point and fire point which were estimated for selection of the elite neem biotype. The best shoot regeneration (60%-80%) was observed in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with naphthalene acetic acid NAA (0.2-0.4 mg/L) and benzyl amino purine BAP (0.2-0.4 mg/L). Root induction (80%) was successfully obtained in MS medium supplemented with IBA (0.05 mg/L) and IAA (0.05 mg/L). Acclimatization and hardening was quite successful with survival rate of 60%.

Chemical Analysis of Seed and Oil of Jatropha Curcus L’ A Biofuel Plant Cultivated in Hyderabad Karnataka Region, North Karnataka.

Jatropha curcas L. is a multipurpose shrub with a variety of applications and enormous economic potentials for its seed oil, which can be converted into biodiesel- an alternative to petro-diesel. It aims to overcome energy crisis problem and also to reduce environmental changes. The fact that the oil of J. curcas cannot be used for nutritional purposes without detoxification makes its use as an energy source for fuel production very attractive. Oil content of Jatropha curcus L was subjected to various physicochemical parameters. The chemical parameters include determination of free fatty acids, peroxide value, Iodine value, saponification value, various physiological analysis of Jatropha curcus L plant was also carried out in order to estimate the presence of total content of chlorophyll. By considering all the above parameters the present study reveals that the Jatropha curcus L l plant is good for production of better quality of biodiesel.

In vitro strategies for selection of eye-spot resistant sugarcane lines using toxins of Helminthosporium sacchari.

In vitro strategies were applied for the selection of eye-spot resistant variants from susceptible sugarcane cultivar Co 419 Different selective units (callus and leaf) of the susceptible cultivar were subjected to sub-lethal to lethal doses of toxins (culture filtrate and partially purified toxin) of H. sacchari, with the objective of improving the efficacy of in vitro selection protocols. All the selective units gave more or less similar response with culture filtrate, but a distinct response was observed when leaf was subjected to partially purified toxin treatment. The response was characterised by the degree of resistance exhibited by the regenerated seedlings.