Castor Oil

Castor oil

often mistranslated as beaver oil by its English designation (castor oil), is obtained from the seeds of the plant Ricinus communis, which contain approximately 40-50% of its weight of oil . The oil in turn contains 70-77% of the triglycerides of ricinoleic acid. Unlike the seeds themselves, it is not toxic.

Castor oil or castor oil production

The process of the castor oil begins when the castor seed arrives at the extraction plant, the castor seed is cleaned of impurities such as stones, branches and peel, then it goes on drying, leaving the seed with 12% humidity. After the seed is heated with steam from 40 to 80 degrees Celsius, the hot seed goes to the expeller where the virgin castor oil is extracted and castor cake is also produced, this cake has a fat content of 8 to 15%. This cake goes to be processed in the extraction plant with solvents, the product of this extraction is industrial grade castor oil.

Applications

From Pharaonic times the castor plant is used for medicinal purposes. The best known application is as a purgative. A typical dose contains between 10 and 30 ml of castor oil. From this, enzymes in the intestine release ricin oleic acid (a carboxylic acid with 18 carbon atoms), which is the active principle. The reaction occurs two or four hours after the dose has been delivered.