Energy is consumed in many sectors such as industry, transportation, and household. Most of the source of energy nowadays are obtained from fosil, which is predicted available for less than 10-15 upcoming years, and should be replaced by renewable energy. One of potential renewable energy to considered is Jatropha, a plant with seeds containing oil that can be processed into biodiesel. As a part of plant, fruit of Jatropha should be treated properly after harvest to maintain its oil in the seeds, so that good physical and chemical properties of the oil extracted from the seed can be obtained. This research is aim to develop method of handling of the harvested Jatropha fruits, including its drying, to maintain quality of the seeds and oil resulted from extraction. Different combinations of preparation (fresh, seed and steamed seed) and drying (temperature of 50, 60, 70 oC and natural sun drying), have been investigated. The results showed that the best treatment was seed drying at 70 oC with the drying time of 4.83 hour, oil rate of 40.06%, and oil yield of 28.59%. Quality of the seeds which fulfilled Standard National Indonesia (SNI) 01-1677-1989 were broken seed (0.57%), cracked seed (0.20 %), foreign object (0%), moisture content (6.08%). However, the highest oil extraction (40.06%) was not satisfy SNI 01-1677-1989. This case, quality of castor oil which qualified SNI 01-1904-1990 were oil moisture content (0.23%) and acid value (0.33 mg KOH/g), but refractive index (1.6209), iod number (54.31) and saponification number (67.30) were unqualified.
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