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Role of Herbs in Livestock Production in India
Published in Megh R. Goyal, Preeti Birwal, Santosh K. Mishra, Phytochemicals and Medicinal Plants in Food Design, 2022
Krishan L. Gautam, Rohit Bishist, Bhupender Dutt, Archana Sharma
Leaves contain Ricinine, quercetin 3-O-β-rutinoside (rutin). Luoeol and 30-norupan-3B-OL-20-one in seed coats of castor beans. Castor oil contains stearic, hexadecenoic, palmitic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and dihydroxystearic acids as methyl esters.
Ancient Egyptian Pharmacology
Published in Ibrahim M. Eltorai, A Spotlight on the History of Ancient Egyptian Medicine, 2019
Ricinus oil is produced from the seeds. It contains the toxic albumin ricin and toxic crystalline nitrogenous body, ricinine, and the pressed seeds yield 0.3% ricinine. The latter is also extracted from the leaves. Sodium hypochlorite causes the toxicity of ricin to disappear. Commercial processing destroys a considerable portion of the toxic and allergenic activity of the seed. It contains also riboflavin, nicotinic acid, lipase, uric acid, urease, glutamine, and euglobulin. The entire seed is very actively poisonous due to the ricin, which is not present in the oil but in the cake. Castor oil is bland; when a portion of the unsaturated fatty acid is swallowed, ricinoleic acid is freed as the sodium salt, which produces irritation and purgation. It also contains tocopherol.
The Structural Biology, Biochemistry, Toxicology, and Military Use of the Ricin Toxin and the Associated Treatments and Medical Countermeasures for Ricin Exposure
Published in Brian J. Lukey, James A. Romano, Salem Harry, Chemical Warfare Agents, 2019
Terry J. Henderson, George Emmett, Russell M. Dorsey, Charles B. Millard, Ross D. LeClaire, Harry Salem
In cases where the toxin is metabolized, excreted, or otherwise not available for immunological or chemical detection, it may be possible to verify an exposure to ricin or castor seeds for forensic purposes by detecting other unique components of R. communis. PCR can detect castor seed DNA in most ricin preparations. Ricinine, an alkaloid (3-cyano-4-methoxy-N-methyl-2-pyridone) produced by castor beans, has been proposed as a biomarker for ricin exposure. The detection limit of ricinine in the urine of exposed patients by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry is 0.083 ng mL−1 (Johnson et al., 2005).
Near-fatal poisoning after ricin injection
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2021
Fábio Bucaretchi, Carla F. Borrasca-Fernandes, Camila C. Prado, Rafael Lanaro, José Luiz Costa, Otávio M. Petroni, Tiago Giraldi, Maria Heloísa S. L. Blotta, Amauri S. Justo-Junior, Natália L. Sousa, Francisco J. L. Aragão, Eduardo M. De Capitani, Stephen Hyslop
Other toxins found in castor seeds include Ricinus communis agglutinin 120 (RCA120) and ricinine. RCA120 is a 120 kDa protein composed of two ricin-like heterodimers linked via a disulfide bond between the two A-chains [2–4,6]. RCA120 shares a high degree of homology with ricin (∼90%) and may cause agglutination and lysis of mammalian red blood cells. RCA120 has also been classified as a type-II RIP, although it is ∼300-fold less cytotoxic than ricin [6]. Ricinine is a low molecular mass (164 Da) alkaloidal toxin found in the seeds, leaves and pericarp of R. communis; castor seeds contain ∼0.2% ricinine [2–4]. Ricinine is a potent insecticide that is also neurotoxic in mice, in which it causes seizures and death; however, there is no clinical evidence of similar neurotoxicity in humans [2–4]. Ricinine detection by mass spectrometry has been used clinically as a useful surrogate biomarker for detecting exposure to ricin and castor oil [7–13].
Abstracts book
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 2020
The seeds of the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) contain ricin toxin, a ribosome-inactivating protein. It is one of the most potent toxic biologic agents and intoxication can occur from inhalation, injection or ingestion. Routine toxicology tests do not screen for this toxin. Ricinine, an alkaloid extracted from the same bean, is used as a surrogate marker for ricin exposure since ricin itself is not measurable in the routine clinical setting [1]. We report a case of an intentional ricin poisoning with castor beans, purchased on the internet.