My thesis!

Hei Friends and all,

I have finished my oral exam for my thesis on 18 September 08'. It went well!!! I have been working with in vitro propagation of Jatropha curcas from different explants. Jatropha is a multi-purpose plant that grows in tropical and sub-tropical regions. It has attracted interests of bio-fule producing companies because of its' oil in the seed that could be used for this purpose. The seed has 30-75% oil content with the extraction efficiency of 85-90%. In addition, the plant has other uses and positive charatcers such as:

* A live fence arround food crops as it is not browsed by animals because of toxicity
* Is a perinal and gives yiled more than 30 years once established
* Can be used for reclamation of degraded lands
* Can be used for making soap from oil extract of the seed
* Can be used in traditional medicine for skin diseases and is claimed to inhibit cancer
* Resist drought for a longer period
* Has less water requirment
* The presscake(That remains after the seed is pressed for oil) is a good source of fertilizer or it could be used as a row material for a bio-gas.
* If a non-toxic variety is used, then the press cake can be used as fodder.

There are also concerns that the effect of producing the plant on large scale isn't vivdily known. There is also argument that it will shift interests of farmers in the developing countries from edible crop to cash crop casing food shortage and increasing prices. In addition, there are no scientifically justifiable results of yield on a large scale and of elite cultivars so far and it makes economic planning difficult.

As it comes to the in vitro propagation, our research team have been working on direct organogenesis of Jatropha from leaf explant and axillary bud explant using e medium modified according to the leaf mineral content of Jatropha plant. However, all explants irrespective of the the different hormone conctration and addition of Adenine sulphate or TIBA resulted a excessive callusing. Further reserach focuses on somatic embryogenesis.

I hope this will give an insight of the overall idea. I will put some pictures and ideas for discussion.

Dagim S.

I did it!

Hei,

Today I have an oral exam for my master thesis and it went so well. After a long journey at I have finally come to an end. I have got lots of experiences and learned lots of technical things at SKP-lab. In addition, I was working on an important plant that recieved a lot of attention as a bio-fule alternative. So I had an extra assignment to read about the social issues of growing bio-fule plant on a large scale. It was all intersting!! I will have some more ideas that I think will be important. But now am tired after a long reading ..... & Even if its' Thursday it seems that I started my weekend now.......


Dagim S.

Happy New Year

Hei All,

I wish you and all the loved ones a happy and prospores Ethiopian new year. Hope the new year be a year of success and opportuinty.

Dagim S.

Hi

Hi all, I created this blog to make it a channel for information and discussion.

Dagim S.