How is ricin in castor oil poisonous?

Castor oil (Ricinus communis) is often used to produce castor oil, a product that is considered very normal. In the pharmaceutical industry often used as bleach, there was a deworming oil in the past, including castor oil and worm oil.

But did you know that ricin in castor grain is one of the most toxic substances in the world?

Ricin: Very toxic substance

Ricin is a substance found in castor plants - a plant in the family of the Ambush (Euphorbiaceae), which may be native to East Africa. Ricin can also be extracted from residual waste materials in castor processing to become powder, pellet or mist.

Ricin is a substance found in castor plants.

Ricin is a type of toxalbunium , highly toxic plant proteins (such as crotin in three beans, abrrin in licorice wire). With its odorless and tasteless properties, ricin has a higher toxicity than the most dangerous cobra venom.

Many people consider it to be one of the most powerful poisons people have ever known. In theory, with 1 gram of this substance is enough to kill about 36,000 people, the arsenic's toxicity compared to ricin is only small!

Symptoms of ricin poisoning are vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, poor urination, shortness of breath, pale skin.

Because ricin dissolves blood, it can urinate or go away with blood, vision and cardiovascular disorders, pulmonary edema, coma and death.

A dangerous characteristic of ricin is that the first symptoms of poisoning usually do not appear before 15 hours (which is the phenomenon of retinal hyperemia) after infection.

Until now, no medicine was thought to be able to detoxify Ricin. Usually death will come after 3 - 8 days. The dose to kill an adult is about 0.35-0.7mg if accidentally inhaled.

Until now, no medicine was thought to be able to detoxify Ricin.

Detecting ricin is not difficult. Most worrying is the degree of ricin inhalation risk that can be compared to the dreaded toxic substance like sarin .

Fortunately, this substance is usually only in the form of powder or liquid, but turning it into a vapor, easily dispersing toxic in terrorist attacks, requires many technical equipment conditions and Highly qualified staff. Therefore ricin usually only uses poison with a single nature.

The only thing that can be done is to filter it out of the body as quickly as possible and treat the body's symptoms. To detect and diagnose cases of ricin poisoning, a number of recommended tests include: test samples collected from the environment for suspected toxins, clinical samples for fluid of human body.