Till: CASTOR-OIL PLANT 



RICJNUS 



COMMUNI9 



/'"//.. 1904. 7-0 ; 1006. 138 ; Hosie. Kept, on Pro- 



1904. .".' ; llln.-' indLacqU' 



1905. \iii , iiiM) ; Tuehirch, Die Hane und die Harzbthdlter, 1000, ii., 851-85.] 



RICINUS COMMUNIS, I. inn. 7,u/., v., 457 ; Ki'PHOB- 



V.IA. ! The CaMor-oil Plant, Palina < 'hnst i, Ri< in d<- I'alnm Cl. 



'. bherenda, Undi. >-ri, nr<-!<>., <>,-, /-, r<il;-t<>j,, <mr<ir, </T 

 jara,(jrnndi, iterindn, r< < 



kotb '. mndi, haralu, kesu, kijetau, etc. These ven iimea 



are mostly derived from the Sanskrit eranda and rm-nbi. \\ith th- 



ve i-at'iri ( anti-rh.-umatic). The Arabi- Uun-.i, the Persian 



the anri.-nt Creek kiki und the kr<,t<>n (Herodotus, ii.. , 

 have had little, it any, influence on the origin of the existing Indian 

 vernacular names. The name Palma O used by Holland in his 



ii of Pliny (\at. ///>/., 1601, 433). 



itive of the tropics, where it exists as a perennial bush or small 

 tree. Is in warm temperate tracts an annual and ascends the Indian 

 hills to altitudes of 6,000 feet. Its cultivation seems also restrict! 



-sive moisture, the plant becoming again an annual (within the 

 ropics), thus allowing of cultivation in the drier months. Rainfall 

 -o\\in.i. r . however, seems essential to liberal germination. It prefers 

 well-drained loams, hence loose sandy or heavy clay soils are alike un- 

 suitable. It is an exhausting crop, especially on the soil resources of 

 nitrogen. Is exclusively propagated by seed, and in India, when grown 

 as a pure field crop, is generally regarded as precarious, owing to 

 its liability to being completely devoured by caterpillars. Mackenzie 

 (Eri Silk-worm, Cachar Exper., 1889, in D.E.P., vi., pt. Hi., 165) 

 mentions a case where 30 acres were completely defoliated by 

 caterpillars. 



History. Cultivated throughout India and naturalised here and there near 

 habitations, distributed throughout the tropics generally, but probably in- 

 digenous to Africa. It is not, however, uncommon to discover it in the scrubby 

 jungles of the outer Himalaya. Duthie speaks of it as naturalised in Merwara ; 

 it has been reported as wild and never cultivated in Upper Burma and univer- 

 sally self-sown in Assam that is to say, in the gardens and waste lands, where 

 its leaves are used to feed an undoubted indigenous silkworm. Taylor (Topog. 

 and Stat. Dacca, 1840, 59) speaks of castor as found in the uncultivated parts 

 of the district. In the Susruta, A'yurveda, references to the plant are made 

 in such terms as to preclude the possibility of the passage in question denoting 

 an imported drug. Two varieties, a red and a white, are described, thus showing 

 personal acquaintance with the plant. Its oldest Sanskrit name, eranda, has 

 passed into the most diverse languages and dialects of India (Dutt, Mat. Med. 

 Hind., 1900, 231). 



Dioscorides tells us that it was called kroton from the resemblance of the 

 seed to the dog-tick, and it is significant that both the plant and the tick bear 

 the name Ricinua in Latin (Pliny, Hist. Nat., xi., 34 ; xv.. 7). Galen, Paul us 

 /Egineta, Mesua, etc., mention the purgative property of the oil. Avicenna, 

 Bhases and other Arab writers add that it is a good application for cutaneous 

 diseases and in rheumatism. But it would almost seem as if the Arabs had made 

 acquaintance with the plant from India, since they call it nmrim-el-hindi (Sesamum 

 of India), and, as pointed out by the authors of the Pharmacographia Indtca 

 (iii., 302), the properties assigned to the plant by the Arabs are those attributed 

 to it by the Sanskrit authors. Puny, moreover, speaks of the plant as not so 

 very long ago introduced into Egypt. 



Few of the early European travellers in India, however, make any reference to the 

 plant. Garcia de Orta and Linschoten are silent. Aiton (Hort. Kew, 1 789, iii.. 377) 

 mentions that it was cultivated in England in the time of Turner, 1562. Kheede 

 speaks of castor as cultivated in Malabar, especially in sandy situations. Loureiro 



915 



DJB.P., 

 vL, pt. 

 506-57. 

 Castor. 



Habitat. 



I .. .;^:. 



Son. 



Prop^mUoo. 



History. 



AnbWrita 



European 



