Morphological characterization of Calophyllum Inophyllum as a biodiesel

Abstract

Nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum Linn.) is one of the most potential forest plant species to be flourished. C. inophyllum seed can be deformed into oil as biofuel. Biofuel is very important to mitigate climate change impact as it reduces greenhouse gas emission from transportation sector. Mostly C. inophyllum grows along the coastline, especially in Ngombol and Grabag, Purworejo. There are a lot of C. inophyllum plant populations at these sites, but its varieties are not studied yet, therefore it is necessary to study the characterization of its morphology. This study aimed to obtain morphological character data and analyze C. inophyllum plants’ diversity in Purworejo. Samples were selected intentionally (purposive sampling). Thus morphological data elaborated descriptively and the cluster was analyzed by NTSYS (Numerical Taxonomy and Multivariate Analysis System) program. The study showed the diversity and also the similarity of morphological characters. C. inophyllum fruit and seed’s morphological character had its fruit length 2.1 – 3.1 cm, fruit diameter 1.93 – 1.95 cm, fruit weight 3.04 – 12.82 g, fruit shape is spherical/round, and fruit hardness 92.5 – 99.57 N. Moreover, it had seed length 1.16 – 2.22 cm, seed width 1.16 – 1.79 cm, seed weight 0.74 – 3.06 g, seed shape were spheroid, ellipsoid, reniform and the color was yellow. The morphological characters’ variance was 26%, which was categorized as low and Grabag district had more potential for growing and production than Ngombol regency.