IMPACT ON HISTORY

It’s A Fact

The Castor Oil Plant

Used for health, crime, and ritual

By JAMES SYDNEY

Many people who are adults today remember drinking castor oil when they were children. Castor oil was respected, and dreaded, as a laxative that worked, even when other laxatives were not up to the job. But castor oil was notably unpleasant to the taste. Little did parents know, however, that the oil had more deadly connections.

The castor plant is grown commercially for the pharmaceutical and industrial uses of its oil and also for use in landscape gardening because of its handsome, large, fanlike leaves and its attractive bronze-to-red clusters of fruit.

The versatile castor oil is used in the production of plastics, adhesives, soaps, textiles, inks, dyes, paints, lubricants, cosmetics, polishes, and numerous other products.

Most of us were introduced to the yellowish oil by our mothers and grandmothers. The taste and odor were so disagreeable, however, that in order to get us to take it, our parents added something like fruit juice or peppermint to make it more acceptable. These additions rarely worked on their own, however, and coaxing, threats and close supervision were needed to get it down.

The Italian fascist leader Mussolini had his agents force-feed captured political enemies large quantities of castor oil. This would produce severe diarrhea, sometimes leading to death.

But the humble castor plant can in fact do much worse. From the castor bean chemists are able to extract a deadly poison called ricin. The residue left over after pressing castor seeds contains about 5% ricin, an extremely poisonous substance, so toxic that one milligram can kill an adult. It has been used to commit murder.

Symptoms of poisoning are abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, which is sometimes bloody. Within several days there is severe dehydration, a decrease in urine, and a decrease in blood pressure.

The castor plant itself, which grows in most parts of the world, is called Ricinus communis. The seeds are generally called "castor beans" because they look like beans. Ricinus is Latin for the blood-sucking tick, to which the seed has some resemblance.

Obviously, humans should avoid ingesting castor beans. However, small children are attracted to the plant’s numerous large, beautifully-mottled seeds and love to make necklaces with them.

Because of the tendency of small children to put items in their mouths, it is not advisable to have castor beans in or around a house with such children. In addition, castor bean plants should not be allowed to flower and seed in a garden to which children have access.

The castor plant is native to the Ethiopian region of tropical east Africa, but has become naturalized in tropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world. In some areas it so abundant it has the status of a weed.

Yet it produces one of nature's finest natural oils. It came to the Caribbean with African slaves and has been used by their descendants to help treat skin conditions such as eczema, liver spots, moles, warts, pimples, and rashes. It has also been used to soften and remove corns and calluses and also in arthritis, rheumatism, joint stiffness, and muscular aches and pain.

The castor plant also came to the Caribbean by way of the people of India. Hindus celebrate Holi (also called Phagwah) 40 days from the ceremonial planting of the castor oil tree, which they call Holika. The burning of Holika takes place on the full moon night before Phagwah. Participants would all go to the Hindu temple, or Mandir, for the burning of the castor oil plant, and the next morning the ashes would be placed their foreheads.

This article will be posted on the website www.silvertorch.com, featuring facts of interest to people of the Caribbean – the serious, the fascinating, the funny.