Polyol ester production from transesterification of Jatropha oil methyl ester (JOME) and trimethylolpropane (TMP) was investigated. The effects of temperature, pressure, ratio of JOME:TMP and catalyst amount were studied in optimization experiment, using Taguchi L9 experimental layout. The parameters explored were found to have a significant impact on the reaction. The order of importance of the variables was found to be pressure, temperature, JOME:TMP molar ratio and catalyst. The optimum reaction conditions were identified to be 483 K, 25 kPa; 1.0 w/w catalyst and JOME:TMP molar ratio of 4:1. At this optimum condition the JOME conversion obtained was 91.5. Confirmation experiments were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach after the optimum levels of process parameters were determined. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.