Extraction Procedure

1.    Decorticated seeds by removing the shells with a nutcracker

2.    Ground seeds into powder with a coffee grinder

3.    Measured 40 g of jatropha seed powder into a beaker

4.    Heated the jatropha powder to 50°C

5.    Poured the heated jatropha powder into a round-bottomed flask

6.    Added 80 mL of hexane to the round-bottomed flask

7.    Stirred and shook the mixture for 10 minutes

8.    Placed the round-bottomed flask in the distillation column

9.    Maintained temperature between 65-69°C, the boiling point of hexane

10.  After 50 minutes, the mixture was removed and allowed to settle for separation of cake and solvent with oil

11.  Extracted 10 mL from top of flask after 12 hours of settling

12.  Measured and recorded the mass of oil-hexane sample

13.  Removed hexane by heating in a water bath to 70°C

14.  Measured and recorded mass of the oil

15.  Repeated steps 3-15 with different solvents: ethyl acetate, boiling point 75-77°C and ethanol, boiling point 78°C

Optical Density (OD) Procedure

1. 5 samples were analyzed for optical density
2. Crisco oil was commercially purified; Jatropha original was purified locally by an independent producer of jatropha oil; Jatropha (ethanol, ethyl acetate and hexane) were produced in the extraction procedure, but not purified
3. A spectrophotometer (Beckman DU530) was used and set at 600 nm wavelength
4. Ultra-pure water was used as the blank for the readings
5. 0.5mL of each sample was then applied using disposable cuvettes and two readings for each sample recorded

Photo courtesy of Dr. Anthony