Morphometry of seeds of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.)

Abstract

Jatropha, due to its potential in the production of biodiesel, as a native species and be resistant to drought, has become analternative to agriculture in the Northeast. The objective of this study was to measure the dimensions of the seeds and classify them according to the parameters evaluated. We selected 128 seeds with good morphological characteristics to perform the classification based on the following variables: length, width, thickness, and mass. It was observed that 23.44% of the seedshad length between 17.50 mm - 17.99 mm, 62.5% were between 10.50 mm - 11.49 mm wide and 39.1% had a thickness ranging from 8.50 mm - 8.99 mm. The mass ranged from 0.437 g / seed to 0.869 g / seed, 25% of the class comprised of 0.700 g - 0.749g. The seeds of Jatropha curcas L. showed variability in all aspects analyzed for biometrics.