Hello Readers,
This post contains some excerpts from an article on US castor crop research published by the South West Farm Press Editorial, US .
We thought to share with you since we found it interesting. Hope you like it.
There is little or no commercial castor production in the U.S. Castor production in US comes with a reputation, largely related to the fear of growing a potentially toxic crop. Ricin, a protein toxin found only in the endosperm of castor seed, can represent up to 5 percent of the meal weight remaining after oil extraction.
Researchers say the long term solution for castor crop development in US is to develop castor varieties that greatly reduce toxicity. Some of the ongoing research efforts in US include:
A group of Texas A&M and Texas Tech researchers have been working together on a castor variety that greatly reduces risk and still offers value in production. Working with the best tools agricultural science can offer, they have aggressively developed a semi-dwarf castor variety with reduced ricin levels and one that allows for mechanized production.
A new variety known as the Brigham, so named after the advancement of castor research by Dr. R.D. Brigham of the USDA Research Center in Lubbock, has provided promising results, effectively reducing ricin toxicity by 70 to 90 percent. A semi-dwarf variety, Brigham also allows for mechanized commercial production.
Read more to know more about the castor research efforts in US : http://southwestfarmpress.com/management/bio-science-addresses-concerns-over-castor-crop?page=1
Some interesting links