Castor Oil: A New Green Fuel?

The castor bean is one of the most useful plants in the world. Castor oil is used in cosmetics, medicines, as a biodiesel, and as an industrial oil replacing petroleum in plastic and lubricants. Those are only a few of the thousand things it's useful for, and the number is growing daily.

The castor bean (it is not a true bean) has been around for a long time, the beans having been found in Egyptian tombs from 4000 BC. Its original uses were mainly medicinal, and as a light oil. The plant's actual name is Ricinus communis. Ricin is found in the raw bean, and is toxic, but although it's grown as an ornamental plant, poisonings are rare, and usually not fatal despite its toxicity. It contains ricinoleic acid, an unusual unsaturated fat.

It is considered to be one of the best industrial oils known. It has been cultivated and improved to the point that it now is 24-48% oil, compared to about 17% for soy beans. Scientists have now isolated a gene (RcDGAT) that they hope to use to develop other plants, without the toxicity, which will produce the oil.

Two things are of especial interest to the average person. The first is the new idea of developing the castor bean plant into a viable source of fuel. It is soluble in alcohol, and it doesn't need the heating that energizes other plant oils in order to transform them into fuel. (Castor oil is used in the coldest climates and in planes, as it can take extreme cold without becoming too thickened.)

The second is the use of castor oil in the field of medicine. It has been used extensively orally, for everything from constipation, indigestion, and abortion, to the induction of labor. Having drunk castor oil as a child, I can imagine how that would work. It definitely cleans you out.