Ah, the infamous castor oil. Were you ever subjected to a spoonful of castor oil when you were feeling sick?
Castor oil comes from the castor bean — a plant used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Ancient Indians called it eranda, a name from the Sanskrit that is still used today. Castor bean seeds have been found in four thousand year old Egyptian tombs. Ancient Greeks left information on how to extract the oil from the bean.
It was only during the eighteenth century that castor bean oil was used internally. Ancient Greeks used the oil only externally. During the Middle Ages, herbalists made castor bean oil into a lubricant and liniment. Internally, castor bean oil is used as a laxative. Castor oil is very mild, and generally safe for even children and the elderly. Too much castor oil can cause nausea and vomiting.
Castor bean oil doesn’t have to be a torture device — the oil is also used in some contraceptive creams and eye medications.
A word of warning: the seeds of the castor bean are poisonous. Just one seed can be deadly to a child. Pressing your own pods to extract the oil can be risky. Commercially extracted castor oil is safe for use. A protein in the plant called ricin is the toxic element. This protein is found throughout the plant, but is not soluble in oil — as the seed pods are pressed, the ricin stays behind. People who are sensitive to ricin may break out in a rash just from touching a leaf of the castor bean plant.
The castor bean plant is traditionally thought to be a good natural rodent and rabbit repellent in a garden. There isn’t any scientific proof of this. Studies have shown that the ricin in the castor bean plant is a strong insecticide, so a castor bean plant in your garden may help keep mosquitoes at bay.