Castor oil is well known for its applications in polymer, lubricant, pharmaceutical and detergent industries etc.However its utility continues in other sectors as well including entomology and pest management.Scientists have recently found that castor oil has pesticidal activity against the storage pest of pulses.Researchers associated with this study have conducted an assay by incubating the pest of cowpea pulse with its castor oil coated diet and monitored the mortality of the actively feeding adults  over variable intervals of time.They were able to observe a mortality of 86% in experimental sets that have been exposed to castor oil for maximum time duration of 72 hours at a highest concentration of 9ml/kg.In addition,those pests that fed have lost their reproductive fertility resulted in a complete block in the pest life cycle. The study also evaluated Hazelnut oil in a parallel way for pesticidal action but proved to be less effective than castor oil.

The experiment appears to be interesting to note castor oil as an effective bio-pesticide for the management of storage pests but a rigorous analysis is required for the spectrum of pesticidal activity and a systemic, physiological impact of castor oil coated pulse diet in humans metabolism in a long run.

For further reference: http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jbs.2009.175.179&org=11