237 RICINUS COMMUNIS 



Fl. Cap. Med. Prodr., p. 37 ; Gris, in Ann. des Sc. Naturelles, 

 ser. 4, xv, p. 5. 



Official Parts and Names. OLEUM RICINI ; the oil expressed 

 from the seeds (B. P.). The seeds (Ricini Semina) (I. P.). 

 OLEUM RICINI ; the fixed oil obtained from the seed (U. S. P.). 



1. THE SEEDS. The seeds are oval, somewhat compressed, convex 

 on one side, and with two flattish surfaces on the other ; varying in 

 length from about | to over ^ an inch, and in breadth from \ to y^ 

 of an inch, and about ^ of an inch thick ; ordinarily they may be 

 described as being about the size of a coffee grain, or small bean. 

 In India two varieties of the seed are distinguished, the large and 

 the small ; the latter being usually considered to yield the better 

 product. A fleshy, tumid process, termed a caruncule or strophiole, 

 is situated at one end of the seed, or if this is broken off, a 

 blackish scar remains. Externally, the seeds are very smooth 

 and shining, and of a greyish colour, marbled with brownish or 

 blackish bands and spots, of various tints and shapes, so as to 

 give the seeds a great variety of appearances. In one hundred 

 parts of castor oil seeds Geiger found, exclusive of moisture, 

 23'82 parts of seed-coats, and 69*09 of nucleus or kernel, which 

 is of a whitish colour. The seed-coats are without taste or odour; 

 but if not rancid, the nucleus has a bland sweetish taste, succeeded 

 by a very slight degree of acridity. 



The principal constituent of the nucleus is the fixed oil, com- 

 monly called Castor Oil, which is described below. The seeds 

 are only official in the Pharmacopoeia of India as the source of the 

 oil ; of which the nucleus yields from about 40 to 50 per cent. 

 The other constituents of the seeds are, about 20 per cent, of 

 albuminoid matters, 2*2 of sugar and mucilage, and about 18 per 

 cent, of cellulose. Professor- Tuson has also indicated the pre- 

 sence of a crystalline alkaloid, which he has named Ricinine, but 

 his results have been called in question by Werner, and recently 

 by E. S. Wayne, of Cincinnati; he still, however, maintains the 

 correctness of his conclusions. The seeds are also supposed to 

 contain a very small portion of some acrid purgative principle; 

 but this matter has not been isolated. But a small proportion of 

 this purgative principle is contained in the castor oil as ordinarily 



