CASTOR OIL 449 



CASTOR OIL 



RICINI. The oil expressed from the seeds of Ricinus 

 communis. (B.P.) Nat. Ord. Euphorbiaceae. 



The castor oil plant, or Palma Christi, is generally con- 

 sidered to be Jonah's gourd. Cultivated in the colder parts 

 of Europe, it is an annual shrub, four or five feet high ; in 

 Spain and Sicily it reaches a height of twenty feet ; in the 

 southern latitudes of India, in Central Africa, and various 

 parts of North and South America, it becomes a large tree. 

 The natural order Euphorbiaceae, besides the castor oil and 

 croton, includes a tall Brazilian tree, the coco-purgatif, 

 which yields the oil of Danda, or assu juice, resembling 

 castor oil, but greatly more active. 



Of the seeds, which are contained in capsules, two varieties 

 are met with, one the size of beans ; the other, and com- 

 moner, somewhat smaller. Both have the shining yellow- 

 white epidermis, mottled with red-brown streaks and spots. 

 The seeds comprise upwards of 25 per cent, of ligneous husk, 

 8 per cent, of moisture, and nearly 70 per cent, of kernel, 

 containing about 50 per cent, of oil. They contain small 

 quantities of the vegetable proteid poison (tox-albumin) 

 ricin. Castor oil contains glyceryl ricinoleate, palmitate, 

 stearate, cholesterin ; an alkaloid, ricinine, which is not 

 purgative ; and a resin, but is free of ricin. 



Castor oil is manufactured in London, largely imported 

 from the East Indies and America, and in smaller quantities 

 from Italy, the West Indies, and Australia. Various modes 

 of extraction and purification are employed. The carefully 

 shelled seeds are crushed in a hydraulic press, the oil 

 purified by rest, filtration, and bleaching. In the East 

 Indies mucilage and albumin are got rid of by heating 

 the expressed oil with boiling water, and straining it through 

 flannel. In America, the seeds, deprived of husk, are ex- 

 posed to gentle heat, in order that the oil may be more 

 readily expressed ; the crude oil is freed from mucilage and 

 albumin by boiling with water until perfectly transparent 

 when cool ; 25 per cent, of best oil is thus got. In Jamaica 

 the bruised seeds are boiled with water, and the oil skimmed 



2F 



