"Screening & Assessment of Energy Plants & Core Technology for Large-Scale Plantation of the Physic Nut Tree," a major research project supported by CAS, has made encouraging progress, said experts at an annual review workshop held recently at the CAS Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The hard work has paid off, says Prof. CHEN Jin, XTBG director and coordinator of the project. For instance, up to 300 varieties of energy-rich plants have been collected, of which, 100 have been undergone component analyses. The researchers have also carried out preliminary assessment on the fat metabolism of physic nut trees (
Jatropha curcas L) and its vegetable oil analyses. In addition, they made observations on its growth characteristics and adversity resistance in different source regions. Thanks to the studies, improvements have been made as to the seed productivity of physic net trees, its oil content, and its economic flow rate.
Organized by XTBG, the project is to set up platforms for the studies of energy plants in central, southeast and southwest China by evaluating and protecting the rich plant germplasm resources housed in the CAS botanical gardens.
Started one year ago, the project involves researchers from various CAS institutes, including XTBG, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Kunming Institute of Botany, South China Botanical Garden, and Wuhan Botanical Garden.
