Medicinal Uses
Castor oil has many uses in medicine and other applications.
Alcoholic extract of the leaf was hepatoprotective in rats. Methanolic extracts of the leaves of Ricinus communis were used in antimicrobial testing against eight pathogenic bacteria in rats and showed antimicrobial properties. The extract was not toxic. The pericarp of castor bean showed central nervous system effects in mice at low doses. At lower doses, the extract improved memory consolidation. At high doses mice quickly died. A water extract of the root bark showed analgesic activity in rats. Antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties were found in ethanolic extract of Ricinus communis root bark.
Read more about this topic: Castor Oil Plant
Famous quotes containing the word medicinal:
“[T]he asphaltum contains an exactly requisite amount of sulphides for production of rubber tires. This brown material also contains “ichthyol,” a medicinal preparation used externally, in Webster’s clarifying phrase, “as an alterant and discutient.””
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“by Spoon Rivergathering many a shell,
And many a flower and medicinal weed—
Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys.
At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
And passed to a sweet repose.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)