Where is castor oil from

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Benefits of castor oil for the face and skin. Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph. What is castor oil? Benefits Use Side effects Takeaway Castor oil is a vegetable oil that is used for a wide range of cosmetic and medical purposes. Side effects. Costs associated with obesity may account for 3. Medical Myths: All about lung cancer.

Cancer research: Are we over-relying on genetic links? Related Coverage. What to know about integrative medicine IM. Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. One study demonstrated that treatment with a gel containing ricinoleic acid led to a significant reduction in pain and inflammation when applied to the skin, compared to other treatment methods A test-tube component of the same study showed that ricinoleic acid helped reduce inflammation caused by human rheumatoid arthritis cells more than another treatment.

Although these results are promising, more human studies are needed to determine the effects of castor oil on inflammatory conditions. Summary Castor oil is high in ricinoleic acid, a fatty acid that has been shown to help reduce pain and inflammation in test-tube and animal studies.

Acne is a skin condition that can cause blackheads, pus-filled pimples and large, painful bumps on the face and body. Castor oil has several qualities that may help reduce acne symptoms. Inflammation is thought to be a factor in the development and severity of acne, so applying castor oil to the skin may help reduce inflammation-related symptoms Acne is also associated with an imbalance of certain types of bacteria normally found on the skin, including Staphylococcus aureus Castor oil has antimicrobial properties that may help fight bacterial overgrowth when applied to the skin.

One test-tube study found that castor oil extract showed considerable antibacterial power, inhibiting the growth of several bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus Castor oil is also a natural moisturizer, so it may help soothe the inflamed and irritated skin typical in those with acne. Summary Castor oil helps fight inflammation, reduce bacteria and soothe irritated skin, all of which can be helpful for those looking for a natural acne remedy.

Candida albicans is a type of fungus that commonly causes dental issues like plaque overgrowth, gum infections and root canal infections Castor oil has antifungal properties and may help fight off Candida , keeping the mouth healthy.

One test-tube study found that castor oil eliminated Candida albicans from contaminated human tooth roots Castor oil may also help treat denture-related stomatitis, a painful condition thought to be caused by Candida overgrowth. This is a common issue in elderly people who wear dentures. A study in 30 elderly people with denture-related stomatitis showed that treatment with castor oil led to improvements in the clinical signs of stomatitis, including inflammation Another study found that brushing with and soaking dentures in a solution containing castor oil led to significant reductions in Candida in elderly people who wore dentures Summary Several studies have shown that castor oil may help fight fungal infections in the mouth caused by Candida albicans.

Applying fats like castor oil to the hair on a regular basis helps lubricate the hair shaft, increasing flexibility and decreasing the chance of breakage Castor oil may benefit those who experience dandruff, a common scalp condition characterized by dry, flaky skin on the head. Though there are many different causes of dandruff, it has been linked to seborrhoeic dermatitis, an inflammatory skin condition that causes red, scaly patches on the scalp Plus, applying castor oil to the scalp will help moisturize dry, irritated skin and may help reduce flaking.

Summary The moisturizing and anti-inflammatory properties of castor oil make it an excellent option to keep hair soft and hydrated and help reduce dandruff symptoms. Many people use castor oil to treat a variety of issues, either by ingesting the oil or applying it to the skin.

Although castor oil is generally considered safe, it can cause adverse reactions and unwanted side effects in some people. Summary Castor oil can cause side effects, such as allergic reactions and diarrhea, in some people. It can also induce labor, so pregnant women should avoid it. People have used castor oil for thousands of years as a powerful natural treatment for a variety of health issues. Owing to the activity of RA in the intestine, castor oil has been widely used in various bioassays involving antidiarrhea activity on laboratory animals.

Castor oil is often administered orally to induce diarrhea in rats. In modern-day medicine, castor oil is also used as a drug delivery vehicle.

The product is a polyexthoxylated castor oil, a mixture CAS No. This product is often used as an excipient or additive in drugs and is also used to form stable emulsions of nonpolar materials in various aqueous systems. It is also often used as a drug delivery vehicle for very nonpolar drugs such as the anticancer drugs paclitaxel and docetaxel. The extraction process begins with the removal of the hull from the seeds. This can be accomplished mechanically with the aid of a castor bean dehuller or manually with the hands.

When economically feasible, the use of a machine to aid in the dehulling process is more preferable. After the hull is removed from the seed, the seeds are then cleaned to remove any foreign materials such as sticks, stems, leaves, sand, or dirt.

Magnets used above the conveyer belts can remove iron. The seeds can then be heated to harden the interior of the seeds for extraction. In this process, the seeds are warmed in a steam-jacketed press to remove moisture, and this hardening process will aid in extraction.

The cooked seeds are then dried before the extraction process begins. A continuous screw or hydraulic press is used to crush the castor oil seeds to facilitate removal of the oil Fig. The first part of this extraction phase is called prepressing. Prepressing usually involves using a screw press called an oil expeller. The oil expeller is a high-pressure continuous screw press to extract the oil. Cold-pressed castor oil has lower acid and iodine content and is lighter in color than solvent-extracted castor oil.

Following extraction, the oil is collected and filtered and the filtered material is combined back with new, fresh seeds for repeat extraction. In this way, the bulk filtered material keeps getting collected and runs through several extraction cycles combining with new bulk material as the process gets repeated. This material is finally ejected from the press and is known as castor cake. A Soxhlet or commercial solvent extractor is used for extracting oil from the castor cake.

Use of organic solvents such as hexane, heptane, or a petroleum ether as a solvent in the extraction process then results in removal of most of the residual oil still inaccessible in the remaining seed bulk.

Following extraction of the oil through the use of a press, there still remain impurities in the extracted oil. To aid in the removal of the remaining impurities, filtration systems are usually employed.

The filtration systems are able to remove large and small size particulates, any dissolved gases, acids, and even water from the oil. Crude castor seed oil is pale yellow or straw colored but can be made colorless or near colorless following refining and bleaching. The crude oil also has a distinct odor but can also be deodorized during the refining process.

After filtration, the crude or unrefined oil is sent to a refinery for processing. During the refining process, impurities such as colloidal matter, phospholipids, excess free fatty acids FFAs , and coloring agents are removed from the oil. Removal of these impurities facilitates the oil not to deteriorate during extended storage. The refining process steps include degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization.

This process can be repeated. Following the degumming step, a strong base such as sodium hydroxide is added for neutralization. The base is then removed using hot water and separation between the aqueous layer and oil allows for removal of the water layer. Neutralization is followed by bleaching to remove color, remaining phospholipids, and any leftover oxidation products.

The castor oil is then deodorized to remove any odor from the oil. The refined castor oil typically has a long shelf life about 12 months as long as it is not subjected to excessive heat. The steps involved in crude castor oil refining are further discussed in the next section. While the previous section briefly discussed the general overview involved in a castor oil refining step, this section thoroughly explains each of the processes involved in it.

The order of the steps performed in the refining process, which includes degumming, neutralization, bleaching, deodorization, and sometimes winterization, should be taken into consideration for efficient oil refining Fig. The first step in the castor oil refining process, called degumming, is used to reduce the phosphatides and the metal content of the crude oil. The phosphatides present in crude castor oil can be found in the form of lecithin, cephalin, and phosphatidic acids.

While hydratable phosphatides can be removed in most part by water degumming, nonhydratable phosphatides can only be removed by means of acid or enzymatic degumming procedures. Water degumming is a relatively simple, inexpensive process to remove as much gums as possible in the initial stages of oil refining. Water is then added to the crude oil and the resulting mixture is stirred well and allowed to stand for 30 minutes during which time, the phosphatides present in the crude oil become hydrated and thereby become oil-insoluble.

Water degumming allows the removal of even small amounts of nonhydratable phosphatides along with the hydratable phosphatides. The extracted gums can be processed into lecithin for food, feed, or technical purposes.

In general, the acid degumming process can be considered as the best alternative to the water degumming process if the crude oil possesses a significant amount of nonhydratable phosphatides. The precipitated gums are then separated by centrifugation followed by vacuum drying of the degummed oil. The conversion of nonhydratable phosphatides to hydratable phosphatides can also be attained using enzymes.

A high-speed rotating mixer is used for effective mixing of oil and enzyme. The oil is then separated from the hydrated gum by mechanical separation and is subjected to vacuum drying. These enzymes have specific functions and specificities. Good quality castor seeds stored under controlled conditions produce only low FFA content of approximately 0. Hence, it is highly essential to remove the high FFA content so as to produce a high-quality castor oil. This process of removal of FFA from the degummed oil is referred to as neutralization.

In general, the refining process can be divided into two methods: chemical and physical refining. Under these processing conditions, the low boiling point FFA is vacuum distilled from the high boiling point triglycerides.

On the other hand, chemical refining is based on the solubility principle of triglycerides and soaps of fatty acids.

The formed soap is generally insoluble in the oil and, hence, can be easily separated from the oil based on the difference in specific gravity between the soap and triglycerides. The specific gravity of soap is higher than that of triglycerides and therefore tends to settle at the bottom of the reactor.

Most of the modern refineries use high-speed centrifuges to separate soap and oil mixture. Alkali neutralization or chemical refining reduces the content of the following components: FFAs, oxidation products of FFAs, residual proteins, phosphatides, carbohydrates, traces of metals, and a part of the pigments.

The obtained soap has a higher specific gravity than the neutral oil and tends to settle at the bottom. The oil can be separated from the soap either by gravity separation or by using commercial centrifuges.

Small-scale refiners use gravity separation route, whereas large capacity plants utilizes commercial vertical stack bowl centrifuges. The separated oil is then washed with hot water to remove soap, alkali solution, and other impurities. Castor oil neutralization is a high loss-refining step. This loss is presumably due to the small difference in specific gravity of the generated soap and neutral viscous castor oil.

Although castor oil obtained after degumming and neutralization processes yield a clear liquid by appearance, it may still contain colored bodies, natural pigments, and antioxidants tocopherols and tocotrienols , which were extracted along with the crude oil from the castor beans. The reduction in the oil color can be measured using an analytical instrument, called a tintometer. Activated earths are clay ores that contain minerals, namely, bentonite and montmorillonite.

These types of clay are generally found on every continent generated through unique geographical movements millions of years ago. Normally, unprocessed clay has lower bleachability than acid-activated or processed clays. The unprocessed clays when activated by concentrated acid followed by washing and drying acquire more adsorptive power to adsorb color pigments from the oil. Under these processing conditions, colored bodies, soap, and phosphatides adsorb onto the activated earth and carbon.

The activated earth and carbon are removed by using a commercial filter. Bleaching castor oil containing higher phosphatide and soap content often leads to high retention of oil due to the large amount of activated earth used and thus causes filtration issues. Deodorization is simply a vacuum steam distillation process that removes the relatively volatile components that give rise to undesirable flavors, colors, and odors in fats and oils.

Unlike other vegetable oils, castor oil requires limited or no deodorization, as it is a nonedible oil where slight pungent odor is not an issue for most of its applications, with the only exception being pharmaceutical grade castor oil. The majority of vegetable oils contain high concentrations of waxes, fatty acids, and lipids.

Hence, it is subjected to the process of winterization before its final use. Winterization of oil is a process, whereby waxes are crystallized and removed by a filtering process to avoid clouding of the liquid fraction at cooler temperatures. Kieselguhr is the generally used filter aid and the filter cake obtained at the end can be recycled to a feed ingredient. Castor oil is a promising commodity that has a variety of applications in the coming years, particularly as a renewable energy source.

Essential to the production and marketing of castor oil is the scientific investigation of the processing parameters needed to improve oil yield. In the recent years, machine learning predictive modeling algorithms and calculations were performed and implemented in the prediction and optimization of any process parameters in castor oil production.

Utilization of an artificial neural network ANN coupled with genetic algorithm GA and central composite design CCD experiments were able to develop a statistical model for optimization of multiple variables predicting the best performance conditions with minimum number of experiments and high castor oil production. Such mathematical experimental design and methodology can prove to be useful in the analysis of the effects and interactions of many experimental factors involved in castor oil production.

With the advent of biotechnological innovations, genetic engineering has the potential of improving both the quality and quantity of castor oil.

Genetic engineering can be categorized into two parts: one approach is to increase certain fatty acids, while the second approach is to engineer biosynthetic pathways of industrially high-valued oils.

In one particular study by Lu et al, 95 Arabidopsis thaliana expressing castor fatty acid hydroxylase 12 FAH12 was used to mine genes that can improve the hydoxy fatty acid accumulation among developed transgenic seeds. The aforementioned study was able to identify certain proteins that can improve the hydroxy fatty acid content of castor seeds.

These proteins include oleosins a small protein involved in the formation of lipid bodies and phosphatidylethanolamine a protein involved in fatty acid modification and is channeled to triacylglycerol. With the dawn of the —omics era, genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics can be key players in understanding the genetics of improving the quality and quantity of oil production. Advances in genomics have drafted the genome sequence of the castor bean, which has led to insights about its genetic diversity.

Further, proteomics can be used to understand proteins and enzymes that are expressed by the castor bean plant. As a source of biodiesel, recent studies showed that the biodiesel synthesis from castor oil is limited by a number of factors that include having the proper reaction temperature, oil-to-methanol molar ratio, and the quantity of catalyst. A study using response surface methodology as a model has been used to optimize the reaction factor for biodiesel synthesis from castor oil.

It was determined that the reaction temperature and mixing intensity can be optimized. Using the optimum results, the authors proposed a kinetic model that resulted in establishing an equation for the beginning rate of transesterification reaction.

Second-order polynomial model was obtained to predict biodiesel yield as a function of these variables. To add further, a simple model using a ping-pong bi-bi mechanism has been proposed, which summarizes an efficient method of noncatalytic transesterification of castor oil in supercritical methanol and ethanol. An enzyme reacts first with one substrate to form a product and a modified enzyme. The modified enzyme would then react with a second substrate to form a final product and would regenerate the original enzyme.

In this model, an enzyme is perceived as a ping-pong ball that bounces from one state to another. Biodiesel production from castor oil is, indeed, a promising enterprise. Advances in models and simulations have facilitated optimization of key processing parameters necessary to obtain good yields of such biodiesel.

In this review, we present both an extensive and intensive analysis of castor bean oil, ranging from its industrial to pharmacological use. Moreover, this review discussed traditional and modern castor bean oil processing and the future directions as we enter the —omics and computational analysis era. We would like to thank Jayant Oils and Derivatives and SDI Farms, Inc for allowing us to use their facilities that led to the conceptualization of this manuscript.

Other authors disclose no potential conflicts of interest. Paper subject to independent expert single-blind peer review. All editorial decisions made by independent academic editor.

Upon submission manuscript was subject to anti-plagiarism scanning. Prior to publication all authors have given signed confirmation of agreement to article publication and compliance with all applicable ethical and legal requirements, including the accuracy of author and contributor information, disclosure of competing interests and funding sources, compliance with ethical requirements relating to human and animal study participants, and compliance with any copyright requirements of third parties.

Author Contributions. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: VRP. All the authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Lipid Insights v. Lipid Insights. Published online Sep 7. Vinay R. Patel , 1, 2, 3 Gerard G. Dumancas , 4, 5, 6 Lakshmi C.

Subong 8. Find articles by Vinay R. Gerard G. Find articles by Gerard G. Lakshmi C. Find articles by Lakshmi C. Kasi Viswanath. Find articles by Randall Maples. Bryan John J. Find articles by Bryan John J. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Castor oil, produced from castor beans, has long been considered to be of important commercial value primarily for the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, and coatings, among others.

Keywords: castor oil, castor beans, ricinoleic acid, nonedible oil, crude castor oil refining. Introduction Castor oil has long been used commercially as a highly renewable resource for the chemical industry. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Castor Oil and its Properties Castor beans are cultivated for their seeds Fig. Figure 2. Table 1 Physical properties of castor oil.

Figure 3. Chemical structure of ricinoleic acid, the primary component of castor oil. Applications of castor oil and its derivatives Fuel and biodiesel Castor is considered to be one of the most promising nonedible oil crops, due to its high annual seed production and yield, and since it can be grown on marginal land and in semiarid climate.

Polymer materials Castor oil and its derivatives can be used in the synthesis of renewable monomers and polymers.