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Ricin, a protein found in castor seeds, is a lethal toxin that is designated as a category 2 select agent, and cases of attempted ricin poisoning are relatively common. Many methods to detect protein toxins such as ricin use targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to identify toxin peptides, usually tryptic peptides. The successful use of untargeted methods has also been reported. However, the use of untargeted proteomics methods, including database search, for peptide and protein identification is less common in forensic practice and may be unfamiliar to forensic science practitioners. Here, we propose a method to create spectral libraries of tryptic ricin peptides and use these libraries for ricin identification by spectral library search, which may be more familiar to forensic scientists because of the use of spectral libraries in small molecule identification. Peptide spectral libraries offer a direct comparison to an authentic standard, a key element of forensic analysis, but have not previously been used in a forensic context. To construct these spectral libraries, two pure ricin samples (one from a proposed standard reference material) were digested with trypsin and analyzed using a standard shotgun LC-MS/MS protocol. Spectral libraries were created from resulting tryptic peptides identified from filtered search results from four database search tools. The library was then used in a search using SpectraST on forensically realistic castor seed extracts. These castor seed samples were made using the crude methods commonly encountered in real-world ricin cases. Analysis showed that the spectral library search resulted in more peptides identified from crude castor seed samples compared to MS-GF+ and Sequest plus Percolator database searches. These results, the first published use of spectral library search to detect protein toxins in forensically relevant samples, suggest that computational comparison of putative ricin peptide spectra to library spectra can be an effective method to detect ricin in an unknown sample. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD013711. more...

This article examines the hedge ratio and hedging effectiveness in agricultural (castor seed, guar seed) and non-agricultural (copper, nickel, gold, silver, natural gas and crude oil) commodities traded in National Commodity and Derivative Exchange (NCDEX) and Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), respectively. Constant and dynamic hedge ratios are estimated by using ordinary least square (OLS), vector autoregression (VAR), vector error correction model (VECM) and vector autoregressive-multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model (VAR-MGARCH). The results of constant as well as dynamic hedge ratios reveal that the Indian futures market provides higher hedging effectiveness in case of precious metal (65–75 per cent) compared to industrial metal and energy commodities (less than 50 per cent). Hedging effectiveness for castor seed and natural gas is even lower than 10 per cent. This study concluded that VECM and VAR-MGARCH both are providing higher hedging although VECM is providing the highest hedge ratio. It has been found that the next to near month futures provide better hedging effectiveness as compared to near month futures for crude oil and silver. It is recommended that the policy makers should pay attention towards the number of delivery centres, standard of quality of underlying assets and transaction costs in spot market. more...

The objective of this study was to evaluate replacing levels of soybean meal with castor meal in diets for lambs on the productive and metabolic parameters. Fifty uncastrated Santa Ines lambs with an initial body weight of 26.52±4.76 kg and four-to-six months of age were confined in feedlots and fed diets containing castor seed meal (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) replacing soybean meal. The experimental design was completely randomized, with five treatments and ten replicates. The intakes of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, non-fibrous carbohydrates and total digestible nutrients decreased linearly (P 0.05). There was no effect (P>0.05) on the daily and total weight gains and feed conversion. Hepatic parameters were not affected. The consumed-, absorbed- and retained-nitrogen values decreased linearly (P more...

Purpose– This paper aims to examine the destabilization effect in the case of India’s agricultural commodity market for the sample period of 01 January 2009 to 31 May 2013.Design/methodology/approach– The daily data of eight agricultural commodities traded on the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange, viz., barley, castor seed, chana (chickpea), chilli, potato, pepper, refined soya and soybean, have been used in this study. At the first stage of the empirical analysis, the study estimates the time-varying spot market volatility by using the exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model and applies three different high and band-pass filters, viz., the two-sided linear band-pass filter by Hodrick and Prescott (1997), the fixed-length symmetric band-pass filter by Baxter and King (1999) and the asymmetric band-pass filter by Christiano and Fitzgerald (2003), to calculate the unexpected liquidity of sample commodities. At the second stage of the empirical analysis, the study applies linear Granger causality and recently developed non-linear causality given by Diks and Panchenko (2006) to examine the cause and effect between time-varying volatility of spot market and futures market liquidity of sample commodities.Findings– The linear and non-linear causality results suggest the destabilizing effect of commodity futures on the underlying spot market for chana, chilli and pepper. The empirical findings are in contrast with the recommendations of Abhijit Sen’s committee and provide important direction for further policy research.Research limitations/implications– The study has a limitation in that it is based on the daily data. The use of intra-day data would have been more suitable for such type of analysis.Practical implications– The study has strong policy implications from a financial policy perspective, as there is already disagreement among researchers and policy makers with regard to the functioning of commodity derivatives markets in India. There have been many occasions when commodity market regulators have to undertake decisions of suspension of trading of many commodities. The study also provides new directions of policy research with regards to the restructuring of the commodity derivatives market in India.Social implications– The findings of this study may further help the regulators and policy makers to undertake decisions about how to provide an alternative platform for farmers to sell their agricultural produce more efficiently. This will certainly have some impact on the socioeconomic set-up of the country, as India is primarily an agriculture-dominated country.Originality/value– So far not many studies have investigated the destabilization hypothesis in the case of emerging markets. This study is a novel attempt to fill the gap. In the case of emerging markets and especially in the case of India’s commodity derivatives market, this is the first study that examines the destabilization hypothesis in the case of India by applying new methods of high and band-pass filters and non-linear causality. more...

Castor seed oil contains 90% ricinoleic acid which has a wide range of industrial applications. Improvement in oil content would be of great benefit to castor growers and oil processers. Two cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection were conducted through screening for high oil content castor seeds using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Selection increased mean oil content of a base population (Cycle 0) of cultivar Impala from 50.33% to 53.87% in Cycle 1 and 54.47% in Cycle 2. Gains from Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 were 3.54% and 0.6%, respectively. The small gain in the second cycle indicated a genetic ceiling of oil content or the genetic variability of the base population was extensively explored. Nevertheless, the 54.47% mean oil content of Cycle 2 ranks the selected material in the top 1% of the entire 1103 castor accessions maintained at United States of Department of Agriculture. As a result of the recurrent selection, we found average seed weight was also increased from 0.44 g in Cycle 0 to 0.50 g in Cycle 1 and 0.54 g in Cycle 2. Correlation between oil content and weight was moderate (r = 0.43, p more...

An integrative approach in mass spectrometry (MS) comprising gas chromatography coupled to MS (GC-MS), ultra-efficiency liquid chromatography coupled to MS (UPLC-MS) and easy ambient sonic-spray ionization MS (EASI-MS) is proposed for the comprehensive characterization of Amazonian oils. Coconut, andiroba and castor seed oils, which are vastly sold in markets of the Amazonian region of Brazil, were selected as a representative test set. These oils were found to contain several lipids such as triacylglycerides (TAGs), fatty acids (FAs), phytosterols and limonoids. In the analyzed samples 30 different TAGs, 11 FAs, 6 phytosterols and 7 limonoids were identified. The antioxidant capacity (AOC) of the oils, as measured by their oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), was also used to evaluate their potential biological properties as well as their possible consumption as food. Edible virgin coconut oil was the most active (0.720±0.001 Trolox eq./mmol), whereas considerable lower activity was observed for andiroba and castor seed oils. The antimicrobial activities of the oils were also recorded against a panel of pathogenic bacteria and fungi in which andiroba oil was the only one that was active, solely against Enterococcus aeruginosa. more...

Castor plant (Ricinus communis L.) produces a very important oil for chemical and biofuel industries. However, doubts remain about what the best plant arrangement is to obtain the maximum yield of seeds and oil from short height castor genotypes cultivated in higher plant population. This study evaluated two castor genotypes (FCA-PB and IAC 2028) in 5 plant arrangements (row spacing × in-row spacing): 0.90 m × 0.44 m (traditional), 0.90 m × 0.20 m, 0.75 m × 0.24 m, 0.60 × 0.30 m, and 0.45 m × 0.40 m, in spring–summer and fall–winter cropping seasons in Botucatu, Sao Paulo State, southeastern Brazil. The traditional plant arrangement comprised an initial plant population of 25,000 plants ha−1, while the others comprised 55,000 plants ha−1. The IAC 2028 genotype presented the greatest plant height, first raceme insertion height, basal stem diameter, number of fruits per raceme and 100 seed weight; however, seed yield and seed oil content were equal between genotypes. Wider stems and higher number of racemes per plant and fruits per raceme were observed with a 0.90 m × 0.44 m plant arrangement, but due to the lowest plant population (25,000 plants ha−1) in this plant arrangement, the higher values of the yield components mentioned above did not result in higher yield. The higher plant population (55,000 plants ha−1) by narrower row spacings (0.45 or 0.60 m) combination produced a higher castor seed yield. The effect of plant arrangement was more intense in the spring–summer cropping season. more...

The thin-layer drying behavior of gray small size and white big size varieties of castor seeds dried at 40, 50, 60 and 70C in a laboratory model tray dryer fitted with a temperature control system was investigated. Temperature was found to affect the drying characteristics with samples dried at higher temperature attaining equilibrium moisture content faster. From the five thin-layer drying equations fitted to the drying data, the modified Page model gave the best fit with highest correlation coefficients of 0.999, 0.990–0.999 and the least root mean square error of 0.010–0.013, 0.011–0.038, respectively, for the two varieties. The effective diffusivity coefficient of moisture transfer varied, respectively, from 8.24 × 10−9–1.81 × 10−8m2/s and 3.72 × 10−8–7.62 × 10−8m2/s, which are within the range for food materials. The activation energies are, respectively, 21.47 kJ/mol and 18.03 kJ/mol. This indicates that the diffusion process requires lower energy hence ease of drying of the castor seeds. PRACTICAL APPLICATION Whole castor seed is extremely poisonous; however, it becomes fit for human consumption when properly processed. Drying is a fundamental unit operation in the processing of this seed which influences the physicochemical and quality characteristic of the product, hence an evaluation of the drying characteristics as a function of drying conditions could help in predicting suitable drying conditions for good quality products. more...

Castor plants (Ricinus communis) cv. BRS Nordestina were submitted to biweekly defoliations in order to evaluate the influence on development and yield components. Leaf area was calculated from the length of the main vein of each leaf. Defoliation treatments of 0, 15, 30, 45 or 60% of the total leaf area were applied. Each raceme was individually harvested and the date was recorded. Castor plants were able to completely regrow its leaf area when the defoliation occurred during the vegetative stage; however, this initial damage reduced the maximum leaf area obtained by the plant. Maturation of fruits occurred earlier when plants were subjected to defoliation. Defoliation treatments did not influence the number of fruits per raceme, but caused a steep reduction of the number of racemes per plant. Adaptations in the yield components were observed in the number of seeds per plant and in the seed oil content, but not in the mean seed weight. Any level of defoliation repeated along the plant growth cycle was found to cause a reduction of the oil yield. The loss of 1 m2 of leaf area caused the reduction of 37.8 g of castor seed or 24.4 g of castor oil. more...

O aumento na demanda por sementes de alta qualidade de oleaginosas, como a mamona, vem desencadeando um grande interesse em testes rápidos que possibilitem a diferenciação de lotes superiores. Para investigar a possibilidade de utilização do teste de condutividade elétrica na avaliação da qualidade fisiológica de sementes de mamona, foram utilizados dez lotes das cultivares AL Guarany 2002 e IAC 80. As sementes foram submetidas ao teste de condutividade elétrica de massa e individual em quatro períodos de embebição (6, 12, 18 e 24 horas). A caracterização dos lotes foi realizada pelos testes de germinação, primeira contagem, emergência, estande inicial, índice de velocidade de emergência e tetrazólio. Também foram determinados o teor de água e a curva de embebição das sementes. A condutividade elétrica de massa foi realizada em aparelho condutivímetro CD-21, utilizando-se copos plásticos contendo 25 sementes em 75 mL de água desionizada, acondicionados em BOD à temperatura de 25°C. A determinação da condutividade individual foi realizada com analisador automático de sementes SAD-9000S. Este método não foi eficiente em separar lotes com diferentes níveis de qualidade de acordo com os testes tradicionais de vigor. O teste de condutividade elétrica de massa foi eficiente na detecção de diferenças de qualidade fisiológica em lotes de sementes de mamona, sendo o período de 6 horas de embebição o indicado para a realização do teste. The increasing demand for castor bean seeds in Brazil has promoted more interest in the development of tests to assess seed lots with superior quality. To investigate the possibility of using the electrical conductivity test for evaluation of the physiological quality of castor bean seed, ten seed lots from the cultivars AL Guarany 2002 and IAC 80 were used. The seeds were submitted to the bulk and individual conductivity test in four imbibition periods (6, 12, 18 and 24 hours). The lots were characterized by the germination test, first count, seedling emergency, initial emergency, emergence speed index and tetrazolium test. The moisture content of the seeds, the imbibition curve and seed health were also determined. The bulk conductivity test was carried out by using plastic cups with 25 seeds each in 75 ml deionized water, incubated in a BOD at a constant temperature of 25°C. The individual conductivity was determined by an SAD-9000S automatic seed analyzer. In contrast to the determination of seed physiological quality using the individual conductivity test, the bulk conductivity test was efficient in the detection of differences in castor seed lot quality and the period of 6 hours was the imbibition time indicated for the test. more...

The biochemical properties of ricin at different stages of seed i.e. from immature to mature seed were studied. Hemagglutination, SDS-PAGE and UV-spectrometry studies showed total absence of RCA protein in the immature seed. Interestingly, ricin extract on SDS-PAGE showed only one protein band with a molecular weight of 29,000 dalton corresponding to the molecular weight of A chain of ricin. Our results have shown that at immature seed level only the toxic moiety of ricin (A chain) is being synthesized first and gradually the RCA and B chain of ricin. more...

Ricin and its corresponding polypeptides (A & B chain) were purified from castor seed. The molecular weight of ricin subunits were 29,000 and 28,000 daltons. The amino acids in ricin determined were Asp45 The22 Ser40 Glu53 Cys4 Gly96 His5 Ile21 Leu33 Lys20 Met4 Phe13 Pro37 Tyr11 Ala45 Val23 Arg20 indicating that ricin contains approximately 516 amino acid residues. The amino acids of the two subunits of ricin A and B chains were Asp23 The12 Ser21 Glu29 Cys2 Gly48 His3 Ile12, Leu17 Lys10 Met2 Phe6 Pro17 Tyr7 Ala35 Val13 Arg13 while in B chain the amino acids were Asp22 The10 Ser19 Glu25 Cys2 Gly47 His1 Ile10, Leu15 Lys11 Met1 Phe7 Pro6 Tyr5 Ala32Val11 Arg10. The total helical content of ricin came around 53.6% which is a new observation. more...

Weed management is among the main factors limiting cultivation of castor ( Ricinus communis ) in extensive fields, particularly when labor is scarce or expensive. This experiment evaluated the efficiency of weed management programs using preemergence (clomazone, pendimethalin, and trifluralin) and a postemergence herbicide (chlorimuron-ethyl) applied at 20 days after emergence in castor plants cv. BRS Energia under rainfed conditions in Apodi, Brazil. No phytotoxicity was observed on the castor plants, and the postemergence herbicide significantly increased castor seed yield to 1466 kg ha −1 complementing the weed control of preemergence herbicides treatments in which seed yield was 1207 kg ha −1 . Seed yield on weedy and weed-free treatments was 760 and 1971 kg ha −1 , respectively. Weeds were kept under a satisfactory control up to 40 days after emergence. This program resulted in reasonable weed control because the preemergence herbicides controled monocotyledon weeds, while the postemergence herbicide controlled broad leafed species being selective to castor plants. more...

Background: Castor beans contain ricin, one of the most toxic substances known. A biphasic toxicity is described consisting of acute and potentially fatal gastroenteritis followed by damage to the viscera several days later. However, the most current review of the literature states that the above delayed toxicity has not been reported. Case Report: We report a 20-month-old girl with no gaastrointestinal symptoms who developed reversible hepatotoxicity beginning 48–72 hours after the ingestion of castor beans. Conclusion: It seems prudent to follow for several days any patients who actually chewed castor beans before ingestion. more...

Castor capsule borer,Dichocrocis punctiferalis Gn. is the most destructive pest of castor seed in India. Studies on the rate of multiplication were carried out at a constant temperature of 27±2°C under a limited space and sufficient food supply, the population increasedwith an infinitesimal rate (rm) of 0·0736, 0·0416, 0·0669, 0· 0492 and 0· 0864 and finite rate (λ) 1· 0763, 1· 0424, 1· 0691, 1· 0504 and 1· 0902 per female per day on maize, brinjal, bhindi, bottlegourd and pomegranate respectively. The net reproductive rate (R o) was maximum (20· 19) on pomegranate. The popualtion on reaching a stable age distribution, in all the hosts, comprised approximately 97 per cent of the immature stages. more...

The castor seed antigen CB-1A, prepared by the basic lead acetate method of Spieset al., has been subjected to column chromatography on diethylaminoethyl cellulose. Antigenic differences between fractions were found by the, Schultz-Dale technique, which indicated the possible existence of six antigenic or allergenic components. more...

A scheme of separation is described for the extraction of ricin, ricinine, and the allergenic fractions from the same lot of castor seeds, thereby considerably curtailing the hazard associated with the handling of the material. more...

The oils from 19 specimens of castor seed grown in widely different parts of Africa, America and Asia have been studied in detail‥. The seeds from different locations varied greatly in size (individual seeds weighing on the average from 0.13 to 0.74 g.), but the ratio of shell to kernel and the oil contents of the seeds did not, for the most part, differ materially. The component acids of nearly all the oils were remarkably similar. Of the total fatty acids, ricinoleic formed from 91.4 to 94.9%; of the minor component acids, linoleic was the most abundant (4.5–5%) and saturated acids (made up of about 40% palmitic and 60% stearic) amounted to somewhat over 1% as a rule. Oleic acid was present in extremely small proportions. The natural 9: 10-dihydroxystearic acid (m.p. 141° c.) formed 0.7–1.0% of the total acids. The glyceride structure of a typical castor oil was studied. No mono-ricinoleo-glycerides could be detected, the oil being a mixture of triricinolein and glycerides with two ricinoleic and one other acyl group. The triricinolein content of a castor oil, on this basis, might, however, be anywhere between 73 and 85% according to the proportion (91–95%) of ricinoleic acid in the total fatty acids of the oil. more...

Studies of linseed, castor seed and Vernonia anthelmintica seed oils have been undertaken together keeping in view their industrial importance. Linseed oil contains the highest percentage of linolenic acid (69.1%) whereas the highest percentage of hydroxy fatty acid (85.6%) and epoxy fatty acids (76.8%) has been found out in castor seed and Vernonia anthelmintica seed oils respectively as determined by the application of thin-layer and gas liquid chromatography. Untersuchungen von Olen mit ungewohnlichen Fettsauren Es wurden Leinsaatol, Rizinusol und Ol von Vernonia anthelmintica Saat untersucht, wobei ihre industrielle Bedeutung besonders beachtet wurde. Leinsaatol hat den hochsten Gehalt an Linolensaure (69.1%), wahrend der hochste Gehalt an Hydroxyfettsaure (85.6%) und Epoxyfettsaure (76.8%) in Rizinusol und Ol aus Vernonia anthelmintica Saat gefunden wurde. Die Untersuchungen erfolgten mit Hilfe der Dunnschicht- und Gaschromatographie. more...

Castor oil is a useful chemical raw material, but the pomace remaining after its extraction is potentially toxic and allergenic. Improving the economic value of castor pomace will provide considerable incentive for increased production of castor seed in the United States. Processes for detoxifying and deallergenating castor meal have been developed along with means for evaluating these processes. Castor meal may be used as a feed supplement for both ruminant and nonruminant animals. more...

Three separate experiments show that cholesterol administered to rabbits in the absence of added fat is more atherogenic than cholesterol fed together with corn oil. When cholesterol is dissolved in the corn oil (by heating) prior to mixing with the diet, it is more atherogenic than when it is suspended in the oil. In every case the lowest serum and liver cholesterol levels were observed in the group not receiving corn oil. more...

Properties of castor-proteins from castor bean kernels prior to extraction of oil have been studied with regard to ash content, nitrogen content, and yields, using different peptizing and precipitating agents. The viscosities of the NaOH peptized and acetic acid or SO2 precipitated proteins were determined and found to be comparable to acid casein. Maximum yields were obtained by using alkali as a peptizing agent and acetic acid or SO2 as precipitating agents. These castor proteins may possibly be adopted as a substitute for casein in various industries. more...

Seventeen newer varieties of castor seed grown in different parts of India and the oils extracted therefrom were analyzed. The seed characteristics varied as follows: 100-seed weight, 15.2–30.2 g; 100-seed volume, 15.0–32.5 ml; kernel, 64–75%; oil, 46.0–51.8%; protein, 17.1–24.4%; crude fiber, 18.2–26.5%, and ash, 2.1–3.4%. Oil characteristics were: acid value, 1.0–2.9; saponification value, 176.2–183.7; iodine value, 81.4–88.1, and hydroxyl value, 159.2–167.1. Ricinoleic acid content varied from 87.4% to 90.4%. more...

Competitive inhibition of lipase activity in extracts of germinating peanuts occurred in media containing inorganic phosphate in concentrations above 10 mM. Lipase activity in germinating castor, cotton, and pumkin seeds and in quiescent castor seed was not similarly affected. Applications of this finding to peanut processing are suggested. more...