276 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Ai a\ -i 28, 1915. 



THE POISONOUS NATURE OF CASTOR 



OIL SEEDS. 



The following i< a summary from tin- Journal •/>' ih, 

 Board of Agricultw ! land) of a paper on poisoning by 

 the seeds "t' the castor "il planl read by Koberl at the 

 meeting of the Union of German Experiment Stations al the 

 end of 1913. 



'There is onlj one species of Ricinus plant known to 

 botany, viz., A' wiw, Li, but there area uuml 



..I varieties. All the varieties tested have proved poisonous, 



no matter what the si z • colour of the seeds. The poison 



is contained in the shelled seeds and not in the shell, capsule, 



or oil extracted from the kernel. The substan :ontaining 



the poison is known as Ricin: it is not visible as such in the 

 oil-free kernel; in quahtitj it forms only 1 per cent, of the 

 dry, oil-extracted kernels. As. however, Ricin exceeds 

 strychnine or arsenic in intensity, small quantities only of 

 Ricinus seeds suffice to make a feeding stuff poisonon 

 a single gramme of the kernel mixed with several litres of 

 milk having proved sufficient to poison a calf. 



'Castor oil seeds are introduced into feeding stud's in 

 various ways. In the first place the hedges oi fields of 

 groiiml nut and sesame in the tropics are often of Ricinus 

 plants and the seeds may thus get mixed with those of 

 ground imi or sesame at hardest. During transport, in 

 storage, and in unloading there are again possibilities of 

 castor oil seeds being mixed with ojther seeds. A further risk- 

 is run at the pressing factorj where the machines may be 

 badly cleaned after pressing the castor oil seeds, so that i! 

 become mixed with the next kind of seeds pressed. Again, 

 for p iking process in Germany the usi i I i tor "il 



ary, and there is the chance of their getting 

 into animal foods owing to the amount of transport of thi e 

 seeds that has to be carried on. Lastly, large quantities of 

 the shell ii old at low prices to manufacturers of compound 

 feeding cakes who grind and use these shells in the cakes. 

 As no method is known of completely freeing the shell from 

 the kernel, it follows that these cakes must, as a rule, be 

 poisonous, and on an average Koljert estimates that at least 

 1 percent, of kernel matter will be present with the shell, an 

 amount which is more than sufficient to cause fatal poisoning 

 of cows when it is remembered that cakes are fed at the rate 

 of from L'Jlli. up to 8f tt>. per head per day. farmers should 

 refuse all .such cakes, and merchants who resort to such 

 practice are as guilty as if they included arsenic in their 

 cakes. 



'The poison, Ricin, is an albumin and has the characteristic 

 (1) of an albumin. (2) oi a ferment of enzyme. (3) of a toxin, 

 ( I) of an agglutinin. 



I i i he a II. ii min nature ol the poison it results that the 



mixture of Ricin with human or animal foods cannot be 



detected by purelj chemical methods, even when hundred 



times the fatal dose is contained in the foods; but the possibi- 

 lity of extracting the poison from foods by water or other 

 method resl on the albumin nature of the poi 



'The enzyme characteristics of the poison are useless for 

 purposes of detection, since feeding cakes ai found to 



iin enzj mes similar in effect t" l!i<in. 



•A^ regards its toxic effects immunity is reached by small 



and gradually increasing doses; and in the l.l I serum of 



immunized mimals 'antiricin', which has tie- effect ..fan 

 antitoxin, is formed. This serum has been found extremely 

 effective in the detection of extremelj small quantities of ricin, 

 but there is the drawback with this method thai i difj n il 

 serum is produced in the case "i some varieties. 



'The method of detection by injection n - i pigs 



erving whether symptoms oi super-sensitiveness are 



iced is not i, i ommended bj Kobert. 



die lays stress however, on the efficacj of a third method 



which rests on the agglutinin characteristics of the poison, 



Le., even if diluted to one-millionth part of the original 



trength il coagulates the blood i irpuscles of guinea pigs, 



and a substance like sealing wax is obtained "n filtering. 



This method holds good for all varieties of Ricinus and is 



even more, sensitive than the serum test. Even here it must 



i -inhered that 'phasing give a similar reaction. Ricin, 



however, will stand a temp il 70 to 7-"> ('., while tin' 



only phasins that can he subjected to this temperature 



without being denatured are tho in I'll ■ 



communis and related'indigenou legumi , and to detect these 

 from ricin toxicological methods must be employed, e.g. 

 subcutaneous injections with rabbits. 



■The pipe, concludes with e directions as mythe 



conduct of tests l"t- the deteel in in feeding -tuff's. ' 



CARBON DIOXIDE GAS IN INCUBATION. 



The purpose oft lie investigation deall with in the 

 following abstract taken from the /.' lent Sta ion 



liecoril was to determine the presi nee of carbon dioxidi 

 in natural incubation, and the relative requirements as 

 to ventilation and carbon dioxide during artificial 

 incubation: 



A specially constructed incubation apparatus that would 

 hatch eggs and .u tic same time allow for an accurati 

 of all factors was used. This experimental incubator consisted 



of four essential parts; the i , tbator, humidifier, gas meter, 

 and air pump. Tw nun oial incubators were also used 



to determine the carbon dioxide in these t\ pes, and nests for 

 sitting hens were prepared in such a wa} a- to enable the 

 drawing of samples >! air from under the hen. The work 

 extended over live years, nearly 10,000 eggs being used. 



The results ol these studies indicated that the chiei 

 source of carbon dioxide in incubation is the embryo, with 

 the egg shell, lien, nest material, and room air as minor 

 After t Ic third lay the increase "I carbon dioxidi- is 

 proportionate to the increase in weight ol the devi 

 embryo. 



The amount of carbon dioxide under -mine.- hens at the 



beginning of the period of incubation is much'higher than 

 for the room and increases to 50 or 60 parts in 10,000, while 

 in the commercial incubatbi li incn i dtofrom 30 to 



50 parts in 10,000. Prom this it appi irs that carbon dioxide 

 is not a limiting factor in commercial incubation. However, 

 ventilation is necessary in incubation in order to remove 

 a portion ol tic respired carl lioxide and prevent asphyxi- 

 ation of the. embryo. It was found that the normal embryo 



is able to withstand a wide varia irl lioxide during 



incubation. Little effeel was noted on the percentage batch 



where the earl lioxide occurred in from 'in to 60 parts per 



10,000, but as the amount rises above 150 parts the,, ■ \s 

 i in o ked decrease in the number ol chii I : i bed. 



[t is concluded that in all carbon dioxide will 



he found, and that while its presence i- not essential to 



sful incubat ion, its o up to 60 p i its in I0,0l H I 



is not prejudicial to incubation. Ivacl ii luencing the 



amount of carbon dioxide in t In e>jfg chamber ol an incubator 



are rate oi \eni d.n ion iibi I • inbryo | ieriod of n 



t o ii. size of egg chamber, temperature, and carl lioxide in 



the air of i he incub itor room. 



