Castor oil
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Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans, the seeds of the plant Ricinus communis. The seeds are 40 to 60 percent oil. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and
Advertisement of castor oil as a medicine by Scott & Bowne Company, 19th century
Warning label on a bottle of Kellogg's Perfected Tasteless Castor Oil, Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc., New York
Castor oil
Castor oil advertisement from The Aerial Age Weekly in 1921
Ricin
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Ricin is a lectin and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor plant, Ricinus communis. The median lethal dose of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of body mass via
Castor oil
…airplane glow engines can be operated with a fuel mixture of 70% methanol, 15% nitromethane, and 15% castor oil, by volume. The castor seed contains ricin, a toxic lectin. Heating during the oil extraction process denatures and deactivates the lectin. Harvesting castor beans, though, may not be without…
Castor beans
Castor oil seeds in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Economic Botany Collection
A metal vial containing ricin from the 2003 ricin letters
Ricin toxin, RiVax, RTA1-33/44-198, and a single domain antibody-antigen complex with the RTA1-33/44-198 immunogen. Original figure can be found in Legler, et al.