Author Archives: admin

Evolution of organic castor oil from India

Posted on by
1

Castor oil as we know a reputed raw material for industrial chemicals is often cultivated and processed in fields and oil mills respectively with synthetic inputs to make it available in bulk with desired properties. However, such pretreatments are longer a valid aspect when oil with quality and sustainability is required for certain subset of applications as production of pure natural cosmetics and related skin care products. This conditional demand faced by Wala Heilmittel GmbH, a German firm to market its completely natural skin products based of cold pressed castor oil had made it to formulate an approach of synthetic components free, organic castor oil exchange with India, involving mutual benefits for growers, processors and consumers.  Christine Ellinger, a scientific representative of the firm initiated her actions via contacts with an Indian NGO called Satvik which then functioned with team of eco-minded farmers in cultivation of crops. Her financial assistance to NGO’ advisory council and efforts of Institute of Market Ecology (IMO) certification for product quality successfully boosted up the cultivation of organic castor and the agenda of German firm reached up its peak with co-ordinated assistance from a like minded castor oil entrepreneur, Mr:Nanalal Satra in Gujarat whose dedicated processing facility for organic castor oil production yielded the German raw material of choice ultimately from India.

The face of organic oil cultivation did not wipe off with German initiatives in India but has steadily grown today to a level of 277 tons of castor beans on approximately 1,175 hectares of land with oil yields in excess to supply other prospective companies. The outcomes so far have been fruitful with social and environmental responsibilities and significantly created economic independence for farmers, especially those in Northern arid regions of Kutch who suffered a nightmare in the earthquakes of Gujarat in 2001.

For reference: http://www.wala.de/english/quality/cultivation-projects/organic-castor-oil-from-india/

 

 

Castor polymer to enlight automobile panels of Ford

Posted on by
Reply

Castor oil is well known to act as a versatile feed material for the production of a diverse range of chemicals derivatives and polymers are one among the well known class of products derived from this edible oil. castor oil’ anomaly amidst numerous vegetable oils to yield diverse polymer types as polyurethanes, polyesters and poly-amides is greatly attributed to its constituent fatty acid, ricinoleate. From the days of its discovery, chemical exploitation over this substance in the industrial world is never ending to either produce new or polymers with improved functional properties.

To elucidate the comment, German polymer firm, BASF has made an alliance with Ford to supply with polyurethanes derived from castor oil for its automobile panels. Reports from the German manufacturer claim that their bio-product in addition to sustainability and GHG reductions offers its clients with tensile strength, softness and fascinating gesture in the instrumental panels of the vehicle. Ford’ advanced product development engineer also appreciated castor oil for its role in vehicle craftsmanship, mitigation of petrochemical usage and introduction of product novelty to their North American customers.

For reference: http://www.polyurethanes.basf.com/pu/KUInternet/KU/en_GB/content/intranews/News_2011/First_Castor_Oil_Based_Foam_in_the_2012_Focus

Get to know more about related derivatives:

 

 

Castor-An Effective Mitigant of GHG Emissions

Posted on by
Reply

Castor oil, an universally reputed vegetable oil finds inexhaustible applications in numerous industrial sectors with special references to bio-polymer, lubricant, pharmaceutical and surfactant domains. In the list of vegetable oils for biofuels, castor oil equally reserves its position as a promising source but often its demand in non-energy sector and volatile global market availability has shadowed the contribution of castor to sustainable biofuel development. To circumvent the limitations and harness the carbon credits of castor biodiesel and related environmental advantages, German firm Evogene subjected biodiesel from its high yielding lines of castor to GHG life cycle assessment (LCA).

To best realize the complete environmental impacts of castor biodieel as LCA, Symbiotic Engineering conducted the study in two different locations, USA and Brazil for Evogene’ product. Astonishingly, the results indicated that biodiesel production coupled to use from castor reduced GHG emissions by 90 & 75% in USA and Brazil respectively.

Manufacturers of this biofuel were deeply impressed with energy and ecological weightage of castor and Mr. Assaf Oron, Evogene’s EVP Strategy and Business Development announced that “The results of the LCA strengthen our belief in castor bean”.

For reference:http://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/life-cycle-analysis-of-evogene-castor-bean-based-biodiesel-shows-90-emissions-reduction-compared-to-petroleum

Anti-cancer activity from new-world ricins

Posted on by
Reply

Biological systems have a complex chemistry which tend to exhibit functions under conditions of demand and proteins are one such prime classes of bio-molecules, persisting in organisms with a tremendous degree of diversity in their constituent composition and functions.Characterization of distinct candidates of proteins for functional vitality is a consensus process, independent of organism and has been followed for Castor here in the context of functional evaluation of strange variants of toxin,ricin and agglutinin in bio-medicine.

Ricin protein is complex protein with well defined lethal functional activity in human cells but its variation inside the castor plant and populations has not been elucidated extensively either on materialistic or functional basis which triggered researchers from Taiwan to initiate freak identification of ricin protein and related toxins from castor seed,richest source of castor toxins.To address this question,they adopted a protein fractionation chromatographic and electrophoresis techniques to resolve  multiple variants of ricin and evaluating the activity of purified, anomalous forms.The results indicated three principal isoforms of ricin(A,B,C) and an agglutinin, in which toxic activity was seen to a maximum level from ricin A upon oral feeding of it in mice and further observation from them revealed that the concerned protein isolate turned out to a novel member.The scientists subsequently subjected it to display its impact against tumour cells and noticed cell division inhibitory activity which was also selective and differential in mode of action to diseased cells.

It is an exciting study to see as the protein chemists followed an elegant and lucid experimental design but ended up with a potent toxin coupled to anti-tumor activity.However the thing that is to be monitored is the contrasting functional behaviour of this new toxin between an intact organism and a cancer cell line which obviously demands for a proper bio-safety evaluation to scale up the promotion of this toxin (declared as a lectin as per authour’s interpretations) for any disease management actions in humans.

For reference: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0041010186901005

Some interesting links

Building Energy Analytics

Some Innovative & Unique Solar Power

Castor oil targetting mosquito larvae

Posted on by
1

The castor oil plant, which is used to make laxatives, now possibly holds the key to controlling the mosquito menace in a ‘green’ way.

A study conducted by the department of zoonosis at Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing, India, has revealed that castor oil can be used to kill mosquito larvae.

In laboratory tests, the castor seed oil extract was able to kill 50% of the larvae in 24 hours.

“Among the various herbal plants that we tested, the oil extract from the seed of the castor plant showed the best results for larvicidal [killing larvae] activity as well as inhibiting growth of Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae,” said Dr Saroj Bapna, scientific officer of the department.

Read More: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Castor-oil-can-take-sting-out-of-mosquito-menace/Article1-715045.aspx

 

Hidden diversity in castor expression genetics

Posted on by
Reply

Castor plant is a complex and evolved biological system which can be defined by its series of complex expressions emerged in the life cycle.An universal observation of them reveal us a fact that the traits are expressed with temporal control and found to coupled to pre-programmed genetics.As the phenomena have been monitored skillfully by intellectual minds associated with castor, the complete knowledge pertaining to genetics of them stood nascent for subsequent improvement and other sort of modifications in castor to suit the demands of humans.The condition is now approaching violation with advent and progression in molecular plant genetics which permitted scientists to overcome the seen limitations in castor plant expressions independent of their level.

Research study discussed in this blog concentrates on molecular profiling of temporal  genes implicated to seed germination and leaf development.It is convenient to differenciate these two phenotypic traits which enabled biologists to expect a great degree of linked gene expression diversity.The scientists followed fingerprinting analysis in partially representative genetic libraries of two concerned castor subjects, made in microbes and they employed differential multiple, molecular probes hybridization technique for the selection of unique genes contributing to the traits of study.To their surprise,the extent of polymorphism in genes and their pattern of expression in castor from two of its component systems was something significant and anomalous,  thus demanding for additional research efforts to have an exact understanding.It is a good proof and initiative action  in the industrially respected agricultural crop, castor.

For reference: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/108/3/1141.short

Emergence of viral pathogens in host castor

Posted on by
Reply

Castor plant is well known to be fairly resistant to biotic stress under the field conditions except for some notorious pests and microbial pathogens.Nevertheless,this condition cannot be taken as a constant phenomenon in castor life cycle since the pathogen-host in interaction in any known biological species is continuous and will selectively generate wavy non-overlapped advantage for one of the two colliding biological systems over an irregular intervals of time and the outcome of which would be co-evolution of both or extinction of either one of the factors.To practically realize this concept, castor plant of wild types have been chosen as a model system in an unusual way after an observation of disease symptoms witnessed in the concerned subjects in Europe.

Scientists from Italy have followed initially an experimental design called “Koch’s Postulates” to confirm that the disease was due to a microbial pathogen and further made extensions in their experimental investigation by molecular probes.They used techniques, PCR and dot blot to precisely detect the nature of pathogen and observed the virulent factor to be a  virus.  Specifically, the researchers categorized it as Olive Latent Virus 2(OLV2) and found to be a closest relative of type strain OLV 1,infecting tobacco.

Co-evolution of host-pathogen is well noticed in this case following the discovery of a novel viral pathogen in a host what is considered to be resistant.Another interesting aspect is also to be watched with respect to the timely disease observation made by phyto-pathologists on the wild castor plants whose frequency in the natural ecosystem is normally limited.The experimental approach is also relatively robust enough to permit an unambiguous identification of an evolving pathogen.Efforts are still required to better the understand the pathogen behaviour and its transmission media for formulation of effective disease management procedures in agricultural cultivars in a pre-determined way.

For reference: http://www.sipav.org/main/jpp/volumes/0202/020208.pdf

Return of Castor in North America

Posted on by
3

Castor, an oil seed crop is currently confined to oriental countries to a vast extent in terms of cultivation and oil production but the demand is constantly mounting from the western countries so as to produce precious chemical derivatives from it.It is a crop relatively suitable for cultivation in West as well but  has been strongly ignored on account of its toxic properties including allergens and toxins.Research efforts have been continuously made to overcome the defined, negatives of castor and yielded appreciable results in recent years particularly in USA.

Such committed actions in castor biology are not restricted to research levels but tend to proceed further when a collaborative agreement has been made between a Canadian bio-products company Lubbock-Castagra and Texas AgriLife Research to produce castor seed with less toxin and high, sustainable yield. Reports from concerned authourities said that  encouraging the crop improvement in castor would restore the abandoned castor cultivation with desired modifications in cropping patterns of the Texas state and directly reduce the burdens of import of this plant oil commodity from countries including India.CEO of Canadian Castagra-Lubbock, Mr:Peter Roosen further added that the oil extracted from this quantitatively toxin compromised, castor would be exploited for the production of renewable bioplastics and hence carrying a tremendous potential for the generation of employment in green technology sector.Presently,the castor crop with reduced levels of toxin is at the trial stage in Texas and evaluation studies are being undertaken for a bulk cultivation, expected in 2012.

It is inspiring to watch such an activity adopted by the legal bodies in developed nations to complement the defects what they are experiencing in their environment with respect to castor. Similar sort of co-ordinated plans are mandatory to maximize the revenues from castor in India.This is well punched with reference to the promotion of end derivatives of castor oil in which India is placed way behind the Westerners in the production tally.It not alone ensures economic exchanges of profits but depicts India an industrially competitive nation at the global level.

For reference: http://media-newswire.com/release_1152924.html

Get to know more about related derivatives:

New organelle discovery in castor

Posted on by
Reply

Castor plant is a complex biological system which can be characterized by the affluent magnitude of functional traits noticed in its life cycle.It becomes a routine process in the current day botanical sciences to scrutinize a biological phenomenon witnessed at morphological level of a plant species to its deep root cellular degree for absolute understanding.This scientific trend has been now applied in castor plant in the context of senescence physiology that is so prominently noticed in its life span.

Cytological analysis of castor plant cells has revealed a new sub-cellular compartment called ricinosomes whose biochemical evaluation specifically proteins as biomarkers led scientists to identify that it takes up its origin from endoplasimc reticulum.It seems to be an organelle comprehensively packed with proteins having proteolytic activity which is turn derived from paretal endoplasmic reticulum.Further,the scientists’ experimental designs over dominant protein members and their functional activation detected that ricinosomes are associated to apoptosis or programmed cell death in castor plant.

It is remarkable to notice a strange cell organelle and implicating it with a definite function.However it is equally significant to point the turn over of the organelle for a functional regulation in the system and revealing the associated bio-molecular members driving the ricinosomes of castor.

For Reference: http://www.pnas.org/content/98/9/5353.short

Castor oil derived eyewears

Posted on by
Reply

Castor oil is known well for its industrial applications and a new crown has been added up to  its credit when Italian fashion icon Gucci announced an eco-eyewear made from castor oil as a prime constituent.It has claimed that the rationale behind  the promotion of eco wears is to integrate environmental consciousness with fashion and further added that this latest eco-friendly product will perform on par to its synthetic counterparts.However no clear release of information has been made over the price of this elite product in the market.Reports say that Safilo Australia will overlook the commercial aspects of the eco-eyewear.It is optimistic to note a vital product in fashion, being made available on techno-economical and sustainable grounds.Functional efficacy of Castor oil yet again is proved and serves to be a true elixir in addressing the accessory demands of humans in a clean way.

For reference: http://www.ragtrader.com.au/news/gucci-invests-in-eco-eyewear

Get to know more about related derivatives:

Some interesting links

Building Energy Analytics

Some Innovative & Unique Solar Power