Jatropha has got number of medicinal uses. The latex, oil, twigs, wood and leaves are used externally for healing wounds, to stop bleeding and to treat rheumatism and skin diseases, other plant medicinal uses are as a laxative, cough remedy, antidote for poisoning, relief for tooth aches to strengthen gums.

Jatropha's seed yields upto 50% by weight, a slow drying oil, which is utilized as an industrial  raw material for making candles, soaps, varnish etc. The leaves are used asfumigants for  bedbugs and a mixture of seeds and palm oil are used as rat poison.

Jatropha oil can be converted into biodiesel, as a substitute for petro diesel, thereby achieving  environmental benefits besides saving foreign exchange through petro diesel imports.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched a massive program of Jatropha cultivation for biodiesel production during 2004 onwards. It is proposed to take up about 10 lakh ha districts   viz   Chittore,   Cuddapah,   Anantapur,   Kurnool,   Mahabubnagar,   Nalgonda   and Rangareddy of Andhra Pradesh in the coming years. Since the government has decided to raise the  jatropha seedlings on large scale, there is a need to produce quality seedlings to meet the requirements. To achieve this, large number of nurseries are to be established.

Hence, the primary objectives of the establishment of nursery would be to produce quality planting stock to ensure better survival in the field and to obtain enhanced production. To achieve these objectives, extensive research in the field of forest nurseries in the forestry sector is being carried out since long. After numerous efforts, superiority of the container raised nursery stock in the field has been established over the bare rootstock. A large number of containers have emerged for the purpose of raising of the planting stock in the nurseries. These include plastic bullets, styroblocks, root trainers, polythene bags and tubes, besides extruded peat cylinders, Japanese paper pots, wood fibre blocks, polyurethane foam blocks, biodegradable plastic tubes, peat vermiculite blocks, baskets, earthen pots etc., In India, mostly polybags are used for raising nursery seedlings. Owing to ease of Jatropha seed germination, seed can be sown directly in polybags with necessary pot mixture to produce sturdy seedlings. By doing so, plantation in the mainfield can be done without going through the hardening process. Hence, the raising of seedlings in polybags is recommended.