Composition of N – Alkanes and Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Jatropha Curcas Seed Oil from Different Locations E.T. Akhihiero 1,a , E.O. Aluyor 2,b and T.O.K. Audu 3,c 1,2,3 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City. a ejiroakhihiero@yahoo.co.uk, b eoaluyor@yahoo.com, c audutoka@yahoo.com Keywords: Jatropha Curcas, Hydrocarbons, Seed oil content, Gas chromatography Abstract. The hydrocarbon content of Jatropha curcas seed oil obtained from Oleh Community in Delta State, NIFOR farm in Edo State and Ikabigbo in Edo State represented as samples X, Y and Z respectively were investigated using Gas Chromatography with flame ionization detector. The predominant alkanes found in the oil samples are n-Eicosane (C 20 H 42 ) and n-Docosane (C 22 H 46 ), while the major polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon found in the oil samples is chrysene. Sample X has the highest percentage of n-Eicosane (65.72%), sample Y has 35.56% n-Eicosane while sample Z has the lowest n-Eicosane (0.23%). Sample Z has the highest percentage of n-Docosane (91.38%), sample Y has 60.11% n-Docosane with sample X being the lowest (22.65%). The percentage of chrysene in sample Y is highest (100%), sample X has 97.47% while sample Z has the lowest percentage of chrysene (44.75%). Introduction Recent investigations into the seed oil of Jatropha curcas a non edible tropical plant oil has revealed that the oil not only contains fatty acids, but also constitutes n-alkanes and some polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons such as Chrysene. Jatropha Curcas is a small tree which belongs to the plant family euphorbiaceae. [1] It is commonly found and utilized across most of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world [2] and has enormous economic potentials due to its vast usefulness in Medicine, [3] as ornamental plants, raw material for dye, potential feed stock, pesticides, soil enrichment manure etc [4] It has a yield per hectare of more than four times that of soybean and ten times that of corn [5 2] . Extracts from Jatropha Curcas have been shown to have anti-tumor activity [6] . Jatropha seed oil can be used to fuel diesel engine, [7] or converted to biodiesel by transesterification process with methanol and suitable catalyst [8,9,10] . The seed oil can also be used for soap making, candle making, synthetic detergent. [11] Plant oils usually contain free fatty acids, phospholipids, sterols, water, odourants, [12] and hydrocarbons [13] , together with some polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), [14,15,16] . Hydrocarbons are important part of the minor constituents belonging to vegetable oils and their determination could be a means of establishing oil quality and genuineness in vegetable oils [17] . Isolation of the hydrocarbon fraction in vegetable oil can be performed by means of alkaline hydrolysis of the oil sample [18] . Although hydrocarbons has been detected in vegetable oils such as oils of sunflower, olive, sesame, peanut, safflower, soybean, coconut, rapeseed [16, 17, 19, 20] , there have been no published report on the detection of hydrocarbons in Jatropha seed oil. It is also known that the seed oil content of a plant could vary from location to location [14, 2] , hence the need to investigate the hydrocarbon constituents of Jatropha curcas seed oil from three different locations. Jatropha curcas seed oil has won the interest of many scientist in recent times because of its usefulness in biodiesel production, soap making, candle making, fuel for lighting, lubricating, medicine etc. This paper reports the variation of the hydrocarbon constituents of Jatropha seed oil obtained from Jatropha seeds harvested from three different locations. Advanced Materials Research Online: 2013-09-27 ISSN: 1662-8985, Vol. 824, pp 311-317 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.824.311 © 2013 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans Tech Publications, www.ttp.net. (#69729299, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA-13/09/16,09:50:42)