What is ricin oil

This makes ricin a potent plant toxin. Castor is considered to be one of the most promising nonedible oil crops, due to its high annual seed production and yield, and since it can be grown on marginal land and in semiarid climate.

Few studies have been done regarding castor fuel-related properties in pure form or as a blend with diesel fuel, primarily due to the extremely high content of RA. In a study by Berman et al, 25 it was found that methyl esters of castor oil can be used as a biodiesel alternative feedstock when blended with diesel fuel.

Another study by Shojaeefard et al 26 examined the effects of castor oil biodiesel blends on diesel engine performance and emissions. The results indicated that lower blends of biodiesel provide acceptable engine performance and even improve it. Similar to the study by Shojaeefard et al, 26 Panwar et al 27 prepared the castor methyl ester by transesterification using potassium hydroxide KOH as catalyst. They then tested this methyl ester by using it in a four-stroke, single cylinder variable compression ratio type diesel engine.

It was concluded that the lower blends of biodiesel increased the break thermal efficiency and reduced the fuel consumption.

Further, the exhaust gas temperature increased with increasing biodiesel concentration. Results of their study proved that the use of biodiesel from castor seed oil in a compression ignition engine is a viable alternative to diesel. The transesterification reactions of castor oil with ethanol and methanol as transesterification agents were also studied in the presence of several classical catalytic systems.

Results of their study show that biodiesel can be obtained by transesterification of castor oil using either ethanol or methanol as the transesterification agents. In Brazil, government policies promoted castor as a biodiesel feedstock in an attempt to bring social benefits to small farmers in the semiarid region of the country. It was found that the castor oil produced in this program was not primarily used for biodiesel but sold for higher prices to the chemical industry. Castor oil is in high demand by the chemical industry for the manufacture of very high value products.

For this reason, it is not economical to use this oil as a replacement for diesel. Castor oil and its derivatives can be used in the synthesis of renewable monomers and polymers.

IPN is also known as polymer alloys and is considered to be one of the fastest growing research areas in the field of polymer blends in the last two decades. Castor oil polymer COP has also been shown to have a sealing ability as a root-end filling material.

A root-end filling material simply refers to root-end preparations filled with experimental materials. The main objective of this type of material is to provide an apical seal preventing the movements of bacteria and the diffusion of bacterial products from the root canal system into the periapical tissues. MTA is primarily composed of tricalcic silicate, tricalcic alluminate, and bismuth oxide and is a particular endodontic cement.

Biodegradable polyesters are one of the most common applications using castor oil. That is, most fatty acids have a single carboxylic acid group. RA, however, is known to be one of the few naturally available bifunctional fatty acids with an additional hydroxy group along with the terminal carboxylic acid Fig. The presence of this hydroxyl group provides additional functionality for the preparation of polyesters or polyester-anhydrides.

The dangling chains of the RA impart hydrophobicity to the resulting polyesters, thereby influencing the mechanical and physical property of the polymers. These chains act as plasticizers by reducing the glass transition temperatures of the polyesters. Fine-tuning these copolymers can provide materials with different properties that find use in products ranging from solid implants to in situ injectable hydrophobic gel.

Castor oil has been used to produce soaps in some studies. Total vegetable oil greases are those in which both the lubricant and gellant are formed from vegetable oil. Their study utilized a simultaneous reaction scheme to form sodium and lithium greases using castor oil. Castor oil has also been used for developing low pour point lubricant base stocks through the synthesis of acyloxy castor polyol esters.

In his research, a biodegradable two-stroke 2T oil, a popular variety of lubricating oil used on two-stroke engines in scooters and motorcycles, 57 was developed from castor oil, which consisted of tolyl monoesters and performance additives, but no miscibility solvent. Production of castor oil generates two main byproducts: husks and meal. For each ton of castor oil, 1. A study by Lima et al 62 showed that blends of castor meal and castor husks used as fertilizer promoted substantial plant growth up to the dose of 4.

However, doses exceeding 4. Their study showed that castor meal may be used as a good organic fertilizer due to its high nitrogen and phosphorus content, but blending with castor husks is not necessary.

Coatings and paints are also another application of castor oil. Castor oil can be effectively dehydrated by nonconjugated oil—maleic anhydride adducts to give useful paint or furniture oil applications Fig. The reaction is known to be relatively rapid and proceeded to high yield under mild conditions. In a separate study by Thakur and Karak, 65 advanced surface coating materials were synthesized from castor oil-based hyperbranched polyurethanes HBPUs , a highly branched macromolecule.

The HBPs exhibited excellent performance as surface coating materials with the monoglyceride-based HBPU, exhibiting higher tensile strength than direct oil-based coatings. Ceramer coatings are also another coating application of castor oil.

Beyond this infamous application of castor oil, it is considered to be an important feedstock utilized by the chemical industry, particularly in producing a wide array of materials, many of which are superior to equivalent products derived from petroleum. The high percent composition of RA in proximity to the double bond makes this oil poised for various physical, chemical, and even physiological activities, as described in the aforementioned paragraphs. Owing to the activity of RA in the intestine, castor oil has been widely used in various bioassays involving antidiarrhea activity on laboratory animals.

Castor oil is often administered orally to induce diarrhea in rats. In modern-day medicine, castor oil is also used as a drug delivery vehicle. The product is a polyexthoxylated castor oil, a mixture CAS No. This product is often used as an excipient or additive in drugs and is also used to form stable emulsions of nonpolar materials in various aqueous systems.

It is also often used as a drug delivery vehicle for very nonpolar drugs such as the anticancer drugs paclitaxel and docetaxel. The extraction process begins with the removal of the hull from the seeds. This can be accomplished mechanically with the aid of a castor bean dehuller or manually with the hands. When economically feasible, the use of a machine to aid in the dehulling process is more preferable. After the hull is removed from the seed, the seeds are then cleaned to remove any foreign materials such as sticks, stems, leaves, sand, or dirt.

Magnets used above the conveyer belts can remove iron. The seeds can then be heated to harden the interior of the seeds for extraction. In this process, the seeds are warmed in a steam-jacketed press to remove moisture, and this hardening process will aid in extraction. The cooked seeds are then dried before the extraction process begins.

A continuous screw or hydraulic press is used to crush the castor oil seeds to facilitate removal of the oil Fig. The first part of this extraction phase is called prepressing. Prepressing usually involves using a screw press called an oil expeller. The oil expeller is a high-pressure continuous screw press to extract the oil. Cold-pressed castor oil has lower acid and iodine content and is lighter in color than solvent-extracted castor oil.

Following extraction, the oil is collected and filtered and the filtered material is combined back with new, fresh seeds for repeat extraction. In this way, the bulk filtered material keeps getting collected and runs through several extraction cycles combining with new bulk material as the process gets repeated.

This material is finally ejected from the press and is known as castor cake. A Soxhlet or commercial solvent extractor is used for extracting oil from the castor cake.

Use of organic solvents such as hexane, heptane, or a petroleum ether as a solvent in the extraction process then results in removal of most of the residual oil still inaccessible in the remaining seed bulk.

Following extraction of the oil through the use of a press, there still remain impurities in the extracted oil. To aid in the removal of the remaining impurities, filtration systems are usually employed. The filtration systems are able to remove large and small size particulates, any dissolved gases, acids, and even water from the oil.

Crude castor seed oil is pale yellow or straw colored but can be made colorless or near colorless following refining and bleaching. The crude oil also has a distinct odor but can also be deodorized during the refining process. After filtration, the crude or unrefined oil is sent to a refinery for processing.

During the refining process, impurities such as colloidal matter, phospholipids, excess free fatty acids FFAs , and coloring agents are removed from the oil. Removal of these impurities facilitates the oil not to deteriorate during extended storage.

The refining process steps include degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. This process can be repeated. Following the degumming step, a strong base such as sodium hydroxide is added for neutralization.

The base is then removed using hot water and separation between the aqueous layer and oil allows for removal of the water layer. Neutralization is followed by bleaching to remove color, remaining phospholipids, and any leftover oxidation products. The castor oil is then deodorized to remove any odor from the oil. The refined castor oil typically has a long shelf life about 12 months as long as it is not subjected to excessive heat. The steps involved in crude castor oil refining are further discussed in the next section.

While the previous section briefly discussed the general overview involved in a castor oil refining step, this section thoroughly explains each of the processes involved in it. The order of the steps performed in the refining process, which includes degumming, neutralization, bleaching, deodorization, and sometimes winterization, should be taken into consideration for efficient oil refining Fig.

The first step in the castor oil refining process, called degumming, is used to reduce the phosphatides and the metal content of the crude oil. The phosphatides present in crude castor oil can be found in the form of lecithin, cephalin, and phosphatidic acids.

While hydratable phosphatides can be removed in most part by water degumming, nonhydratable phosphatides can only be removed by means of acid or enzymatic degumming procedures. Water degumming is a relatively simple, inexpensive process to remove as much gums as possible in the initial stages of oil refining.

Water is then added to the crude oil and the resulting mixture is stirred well and allowed to stand for 30 minutes during which time, the phosphatides present in the crude oil become hydrated and thereby become oil-insoluble. Water degumming allows the removal of even small amounts of nonhydratable phosphatides along with the hydratable phosphatides.

The extracted gums can be processed into lecithin for food, feed, or technical purposes. In general, the acid degumming process can be considered as the best alternative to the water degumming process if the crude oil possesses a significant amount of nonhydratable phosphatides. The precipitated gums are then separated by centrifugation followed by vacuum drying of the degummed oil. The conversion of nonhydratable phosphatides to hydratable phosphatides can also be attained using enzymes.

A high-speed rotating mixer is used for effective mixing of oil and enzyme. The oil is then separated from the hydrated gum by mechanical separation and is subjected to vacuum drying. These enzymes have specific functions and specificities. Good quality castor seeds stored under controlled conditions produce only low FFA content of approximately 0.

Hence, it is highly essential to remove the high FFA content so as to produce a high-quality castor oil. This process of removal of FFA from the degummed oil is referred to as neutralization. In general, the refining process can be divided into two methods: chemical and physical refining. Under these processing conditions, the low boiling point FFA is vacuum distilled from the high boiling point triglycerides. On the other hand, chemical refining is based on the solubility principle of triglycerides and soaps of fatty acids.

The formed soap is generally insoluble in the oil and, hence, can be easily separated from the oil based on the difference in specific gravity between the soap and triglycerides. The specific gravity of soap is higher than that of triglycerides and therefore tends to settle at the bottom of the reactor. Most of the modern refineries use high-speed centrifuges to separate soap and oil mixture. Alkali neutralization or chemical refining reduces the content of the following components: FFAs, oxidation products of FFAs, residual proteins, phosphatides, carbohydrates, traces of metals, and a part of the pigments.

The obtained soap has a higher specific gravity than the neutral oil and tends to settle at the bottom. The oil can be separated from the soap either by gravity separation or by using commercial centrifuges. Small-scale refiners use gravity separation route, whereas large capacity plants utilizes commercial vertical stack bowl centrifuges. The separated oil is then washed with hot water to remove soap, alkali solution, and other impurities. Castor oil neutralization is a high loss-refining step.

This loss is presumably due to the small difference in specific gravity of the generated soap and neutral viscous castor oil. Although castor oil obtained after degumming and neutralization processes yield a clear liquid by appearance, it may still contain colored bodies, natural pigments, and antioxidants tocopherols and tocotrienols , which were extracted along with the crude oil from the castor beans.

The reduction in the oil color can be measured using an analytical instrument, called a tintometer. Activated earths are clay ores that contain minerals, namely, bentonite and montmorillonite. These types of clay are generally found on every continent generated through unique geographical movements millions of years ago.

Normally, unprocessed clay has lower bleachability than acid-activated or processed clays. The unprocessed clays when activated by concentrated acid followed by washing and drying acquire more adsorptive power to adsorb color pigments from the oil. Under these processing conditions, colored bodies, soap, and phosphatides adsorb onto the activated earth and carbon.

The activated earth and carbon are removed by using a commercial filter. Bleaching castor oil containing higher phosphatide and soap content often leads to high retention of oil due to the large amount of activated earth used and thus causes filtration issues.

Deodorization is simply a vacuum steam distillation process that removes the relatively volatile components that give rise to undesirable flavors, colors, and odors in fats and oils. Unlike other vegetable oils, castor oil requires limited or no deodorization, as it is a nonedible oil where slight pungent odor is not an issue for most of its applications, with the only exception being pharmaceutical grade castor oil.

The majority of vegetable oils contain high concentrations of waxes, fatty acids, and lipids. Hence, it is subjected to the process of winterization before its final use. Winterization of oil is a process, whereby waxes are crystallized and removed by a filtering process to avoid clouding of the liquid fraction at cooler temperatures. Kieselguhr is the generally used filter aid and the filter cake obtained at the end can be recycled to a feed ingredient.

Castor oil is a promising commodity that has a variety of applications in the coming years, particularly as a renewable energy source. Essential to the production and marketing of castor oil is the scientific investigation of the processing parameters needed to improve oil yield.

In the recent years, machine learning predictive modeling algorithms and calculations were performed and implemented in the prediction and optimization of any process parameters in castor oil production.

Utilization of an artificial neural network ANN coupled with genetic algorithm GA and central composite design CCD experiments were able to develop a statistical model for optimization of multiple variables predicting the best performance conditions with minimum number of experiments and high castor oil production. Such mathematical experimental design and methodology can prove to be useful in the analysis of the effects and interactions of many experimental factors involved in castor oil production.

With the advent of biotechnological innovations, genetic engineering has the potential of improving both the quality and quantity of castor oil. Genetic engineering can be categorized into two parts: one approach is to increase certain fatty acids, while the second approach is to engineer biosynthetic pathways of industrially high-valued oils.

In one particular study by Lu et al, 95 Arabidopsis thaliana expressing castor fatty acid hydroxylase 12 FAH12 was used to mine genes that can improve the hydoxy fatty acid accumulation among developed transgenic seeds. The aforementioned study was able to identify certain proteins that can improve the hydroxy fatty acid content of castor seeds. These proteins include oleosins a small protein involved in the formation of lipid bodies and phosphatidylethanolamine a protein involved in fatty acid modification and is channeled to triacylglycerol.

With the dawn of the —omics era, genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics can be key players in understanding the genetics of improving the quality and quantity of oil production.

Advances in genomics have drafted the genome sequence of the castor bean, which has led to insights about its genetic diversity. Further, proteomics can be used to understand proteins and enzymes that are expressed by the castor bean plant. As a source of biodiesel, recent studies showed that the biodiesel synthesis from castor oil is limited by a number of factors that include having the proper reaction temperature, oil-to-methanol molar ratio, and the quantity of catalyst.

A study using response surface methodology as a model has been used to optimize the reaction factor for biodiesel synthesis from castor oil. It was determined that the reaction temperature and mixing intensity can be optimized. Using the optimum results, the authors proposed a kinetic model that resulted in establishing an equation for the beginning rate of transesterification reaction. Second-order polynomial model was obtained to predict biodiesel yield as a function of these variables.

It can take time for the skin to fully absorb castor oil, but diluting the oil can promote absorption into the skin. People can dilute castor oil with other oils, such as olive or peanut oil. The recommended ratio is — the quantity of castor oil should be the same as the oil with which it is mixed. Castor oil can have a range of side effects. While castor oil has a range of promising properties, it is important to note that the scientific evidence supporting many of these claims is not conclusive, and much of the evidence tends to be anecdotal rather than scientific.

This means that most studies are about one particular instance in which treatment with castor oil was successful, rather than providing wide-ranging and accurate data.

Anyone who experiences an allergic reaction to castor oil should seek medical attention immediately. Using castor oil is a useful and inexpensive way to promote skin health, and it may have particular benefits for facial skin. However, much of the evidence underlying these benefits is yet to be deemed conclusive, and a greater degree of scientific research will be required to determine the full benefits of castor oil.

This oil is relatively safe, but it can cause some side effects that should be considered when deciding whether to use castor oil on the face and skin. Read the article in Spanish.

Integrative medicine IM combines conventional medicine with complementary treatments. Learn more about IM here. Qigong may have benefits for mental and physical health, but the scientific evidence is limited. Learn about qigong's benefits here.

What is fire cider, and how do people make it? Read on to learn more about the natural remedy, including its potential health benefits and side…. Applying castor oil to wounds creates a moist environment that promotes healing and prevents sores from drying out. Venelex, a popular ointment used in clinical settings to treat wounds, contains a mixture of castor oil and Peru balsam, a balm derived from the Myroxylon tree 7.

Castor oil stimulates tissue growth so that a barrier can be formed between the wound and the environment, decreasing the risk of infection. It also reduces dryness and cornification, the buildup of dead skin cells that can delay wound healing 8. Studies have found that ointments containing castor oil may be especially helpful in healing pressure ulcers, a type wound that develops from prolonged pressure on the skin.

One study looked at the wound-healing effects of an ointment containing castor oil in nursing home residents with pressure ulcers.

Those whose wounds were treated with castor oil experienced higher healing rates and shorter healing times than those treated with other methods 9. Summary Castor oil helps heal wounds by stimulating the growth of new tissue, reducing dryness and preventing the buildup of dead skin cells. Ricinoleic acid, the main fatty acid found in castor oil, has impressive anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown that when castor oil is applied topically, it reduces inflammation and relieves pain.

The pain-reducing and anti-inflammatory qualities of castor oil may be particularly helpful to those with an inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis. Animal and test-tube studies have found that ricinoleic acid reduces pain and swelling One study demonstrated that treatment with a gel containing ricinoleic acid led to a significant reduction in pain and inflammation when applied to the skin, compared to other treatment methods A test-tube component of the same study showed that ricinoleic acid helped reduce inflammation caused by human rheumatoid arthritis cells more than another treatment.

Although these results are promising, more human studies are needed to determine the effects of castor oil on inflammatory conditions. Summary Castor oil is high in ricinoleic acid, a fatty acid that has been shown to help reduce pain and inflammation in test-tube and animal studies.

Acne is a skin condition that can cause blackheads, pus-filled pimples and large, painful bumps on the face and body. Castor oil has several qualities that may help reduce acne symptoms. Inflammation is thought to be a factor in the development and severity of acne, so applying castor oil to the skin may help reduce inflammation-related symptoms Acne is also associated with an imbalance of certain types of bacteria normally found on the skin, including Staphylococcus aureus Castor oil has antimicrobial properties that may help fight bacterial overgrowth when applied to the skin.

One test-tube study found that castor oil extract showed considerable antibacterial power, inhibiting the growth of several bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus Castor oil is also a natural moisturizer, so it may help soothe the inflamed and irritated skin typical in those with acne.

Summary Castor oil helps fight inflammation, reduce bacteria and soothe irritated skin, all of which can be helpful for those looking for a natural acne remedy.

Candida albicans is a type of fungus that commonly causes dental issues like plaque overgrowth, gum infections and root canal infections Castor oil has antifungal properties and may help fight off Candida , keeping the mouth healthy.

One test-tube study found that castor oil eliminated Candida albicans from contaminated human tooth roots Castor oil may also help treat denture-related stomatitis, a painful condition thought to be caused by Candida overgrowth. This is a common issue in elderly people who wear dentures. A study in 30 elderly people with denture-related stomatitis showed that treatment with castor oil led to improvements in the clinical signs of stomatitis, including inflammation