Next to an Italian social club on Court Street, the most amazing flowers happily grow ten to twelve feet in a side garden, amongst much smaller annuals and a Madonna protected under a white cupola. It is an amazing sight.
"May I take a picture of your plants?" I asked the two gentlemen who were leaning against the fence of the Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi Cultural & Social Club, Inc..
" Sure, go right ahead." was their reply. However, neither one of them knew the answer to my second question.
"No, we don't know what kind of plants those are. You need to ask the gardener."
When the gardener stepped out of his magical garden, he proudly told me that these towering plants were Castor Oil Plants.
"Yes, yes." he assured me. " Castor oil, you know, it's used by doctors."
Yes indeed. Ricinus communis is a natural laxative and a lubricant and so much more.
From
Answers.com:"The castor seed, or bean, is the source of numerous economically important products as one of the world's most important industrial oils, and was one of the earliest commercial products. Castor beans have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to 4000 B.C. According to the Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text from 1500 B.C., Egyptian doctors used castor oil to protect the eyes from irritation. The oil from the bean was used thousands of years ago in facial oils and in wick lamps for lighting. Castor oil has been used medicinally in the United States since the days of the pioneers. Traveling medicine men in the late 1800s peddled castor oil, often mixed with as much as 40% alcohol, as a heroic cure for everything from constipation to heartburn. It was also used to induce labor. At the present time, castor oil is used internally as a laxative and externally as a castor oil pack or poultice."But what's that? A by product of the castor bean is ricin? Here is more on this plant:
"The active poison in the castor bean is ricin, a deadly water-soluble protein called a lectin. The ricin is left in the meal or cake after the oil is extracted from the bean, so castor oil does not contain any of the poison. The seed is only toxic if the outer shell is broken or chewed. Humans and horses are most susceptible to ricin, although all pets and livestock should be kept away from the castor seed. It has been estimated that gram for gram, ricin is 6,000 times more deadly than cyanide and 12,000 times more deadly than rattlesnake venom. A dose of only 70 grams, or one two-millionth of an ounce (roughly equivalent to the weight of a single grain of table salt) is enough to kill a 160-pound person. Even small particles in open sores or in the eyes may be fatal. As few as four ingested seeds can kill an adult human. Lesser amounts may result in vomiting, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, increased heart rate, profuse sweating, and convulsions. Signs of toxicity occur about 18–24 hours after ingestion. Ricin seems to cause clumping (agglutination) and breakdown (hemolysis) of red blood cells, hemorrhaging in the digestive tract, and damage to the liver and kidneys."
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