Curcas

Our company, Curcas Oil N.V., takes its name directly from the name Jatropha Curcas, which is the Latin name for the species of plant under the genus Jatropha that our company plants for the purpose of harvesting the seeds for production into crude oil.

The Jatropha Curcas is a perennial poisonous shrub that is hailed as one of the most promising alternative energy biomass crops for its rapid and long productive life cycle, resistance to disease, ability to be cultivated in marginal soils, non-competitiveness with food crops and high oil content per seed.

Originating from the tropics of Central America, the Jatropha Curcas plant has spread to other tropical regions in Asia and Africa. The plant is used as a hedge crop by farmers, and increasingly, as a cash crop to support a growing alternative energy industry based on oil obtained from the Jatropha Curcas seed.

Jatropha Curcas seeds contain approximately 30 percent to 35 percent oil content that can be crushed and processed into a crude oil that is then used directly as a fuel in engines or further processed into biodiesel or other biofuels. The high oil content of the Jatropha Curcas, combined with its fruitful production of seeds within 9 months of planting, has enabled Curcas oil N.V. to build a fast turnover, high-yielding bio-fuel operation that is an ideal investment opportunity.