Author Archives: admin

Apoptosis in castor seed endosperm during germination.

Posted on by
Reply

Researchers  have identified that cells in castor bean endosperm follows  apoptosis mechanism during the process of gemination.They were also able to notice that endosperm cells adopt a regularity as the cells in vicinity to cotyledons first face a programmed cell death followed by the cells in vicinity.During this process,scientists found that the catalytic proteases accumulated inside the organelles(intracellular store houses) were released to cytosolic medium to cause the cell death.This research has taken advanced imaging techniques including electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry to understand the castor germination physiology.

Castor physiology is not well studied as other crops at molecular level and hence studies of this type would have a significant impact in understanding the classical germination phenomenon in a systematic way.We can also readily witness that the castor system has evolved in a perfect way to have a control in the turn over of cells for the ultimate management of the system in equilibrium which is often a problematic event in human systems resulting in cancers.

For detailed reference:http://www.pnas.org/content/96/24/14159.full

Castor oil as a biopesticide for storage pests in pulses.

Posted on by
Reply

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

Castor cultivation emerging in Brazil

Posted on by
1

Castor cultivation extensively is practiced throughout the world for it industrial oil.Recently, Brazilian firm Eco-carbone has made it’s entry into castor venture and claims that the firm has launched a pilot scale production of castor in 1100 hectares of rainfed and irrigated lands hired on rent basis.The anticipated production of castor seed would be around 2300 tonnes per annum.They say that the objective behind this investment is to accelerate the cultivation of castor in Brazil as demand for castor oil and its derivatives are globally increasing.In addition, castor proves to be a viable alternative to Jatropha for the bio-diesel production in Brazil.

It is important to note that Brazil is an excellent agro-climatic zone for the cultivation of castor but its current day production is way behind India.Therefore initiatives of such types would have a deep impact in understanding the potential of this oilseed crop in right geographical zones for economic and employment prosperity.

For further reference:http://www.eco-carbone.com/index.php?Firstlevel_ID=15&lang=en

Some interesting links

Building Energy Analytics

Some Innovative & Unique Solar Power

Processed castor bean meal as a probable feed for poultry.

Posted on by
Reply

Castor bean meal(CBM) is well known for its toxicity functions due to the presence of ricin protein and other castor plant based metabolites.A classical but a productive research study from the Rutgers University,USA revealed a complete, strange fact about castor bean cake.Researchers Laufey Vilhjalmsdottir and Hans Fischer have chosen CBM and treated it  with warm water to exclude its toxic debris materials.They later fed the processed material to the bred chicks as a test proteinaceous diet to assess an increase in biomass and were able to notice not alone a loss of toxicity from the fed material but also an incrementation in the mass development of experiemental subjects which enabled scientists to understand the scope of CBM as a potent future, feedstock in poultry.The results also revealed that CBM has to be supplemented along with some essential amino acids to achieve a superior activity in chicks which otherwise proved to be inferior performing to soybean diet.

In this analytical study, scientists were able to prove the efficacy of the deoiled cake from castor but the experimental robustness with appropriate controls and parameters are necessary to confirm the compatibility of CBM as a routine feed for the poultry and other livestocks.

For further study:http://jn.nutrition.org/content/101/9/1185.full.pdf

Plant oil stoves as alternate sources of energy

Posted on by
Reply

Bio-fuel from renewable resources has extended its roots to kitchens as well.The German Firms, BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) have introduced a new plant oil stove “The Protos”. They claim that their eco-friendly stove operates by sustainably generated bio-fuels from castor and other edible oils. It has a great potential to minimize the demand for wood fuels among the rural people.Further, its ecological significance can be best understood by its ability to reduce seven tonnes of carbondioxide emissions per year. After a successful preliminary testing from 2004 to 2006, the firms have sold about 800 plant oil stoves so far in Philippines and plans have been made to evaluate the performance of “The Protos” in other nations including India, Indonesia, South Africa and Tanzania.

Plant oil stoves are extraordinary alternate energy sources for household purposes but needs a complete profile regarding its biosafety, stability to liberate energy and a well defined production technology and volume to feed the stoves to achieve an uninterrupted supply of energy.

For Further Reference:http://www.siemens.com/sustainability/en/sustainable/protos.htm

Castor cultivation for biodiesel production.

Posted on by
1

Biodiesel from castor is an emerging trend in Jamaica as it planned to use the oil seed crop to minimize its energy burden in a sustainable way.Petrojam Ethanol Limited(PEL) Chairman,Mr.Karl James stated that castor biodiesel is a potential renewable source, well suited to Jamaican conditions and can meet atleast 3% of the total consumption of 168 million gallons of diesel oil demand in the country.He further insisted that the initiative is to be implemented with caution and the formation of inter ministerial committee of Cabinet is mandatory to accelerate the program.Energy Minister, Philip Paulwell said that castor crop is well acclimatized to grow in any marginal region without competing with the principal crops.He also added that castor needs low maintainance and high oil content in beans  renders production effective.

It is vital to carefully select a castor breed and good agronomic practices for the implementation of the project with success.

For further reference:http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070810/business/business1.html

Some interesting links

Building Energy Analytics

Some Innovative & Unique Solar Power

Mozambican firm plans to establish a Castor oil plant:

Posted on by
2

Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported that the firm, Miranda Caju has decided to install a Castor oil extraction plant worth US$3.5 million, with a production capacity of 6000 tonnes oil on an annual basis. This initiative was made after a mounting demand from the Cashew processors to use hydrogenated Castor oil for the shelling process in Cashew. They plan to cultivate the necessary castor in Meconta district that will provide only 12% of the raw material but the firm has already promoted the castor cultivation in the neighboring districts of Zambézia, Niassa and Cabo Delgado to satify the demands. The sources also informed that a part of the production will even be exported to other countries including South Africa and United States.

For details: http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=10962

Fall in the prices of castor seed

Posted on by
1

The price trend of castor seed finally saw a dip when the castor seed March contract fell to US$ 114.695 from the previous close of US$ 117.595 per unit quintal in profit booking at the Rajkot Commodity Exchange. A reduction in spot castor prices has also been witnessed at RCX when the day ended at US$ 115.662 from yesterday’s close of 125.822US$.The castor seed pricing showed a similar suppression in NCDEX as well when the prices fell down to US$120.715 and 115.684 for the February and March contracts respectively.

For further reference: http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Decline-in-castor-seed-prices/3561267171

Castor oil as source of biodiesel in Jamaica

Posted on by
1

An agreement worth US$ 10.3 million has been signed between Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica’s Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy (PCJ’s CERE) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) to conduct research on Castor and Jatropha for the production of Biodiesel.The proposed research project is  for three years,  from February 2011 to January 2014 and involves an establishment of pilot scale plant to produce biodiesel from castor raised at CARDI and subject the biodiesel for transport oriented applications.The managing director at PCJ Mr:Nigel Logan has said that the partnership would enable the nation to regulate it’s demand for oil and also to explore the native renewable sources for energy production.He further added that optimistic results would guide them to implement the Castor oil biodiesel in transport sector.It is important to remember that Jamaica has already made blends of ethanol with classical fuel which is being sold at energy service stations.

For details, please read:http://www.jis.gov.jm/news/hl.s1/26779

Some interesting links

Building Energy Analytics

Some Innovative & Unique Solar Power

Castor bio-diesel to minimize greenhouse gas emission

Posted on by
1

Researchers from India have made bio-diesel from Castor oil by alkaline trans-esterification process and assessed it’s physio-chemical properties for locomotive engine based fuel applications.The experimentation with Castor bio-diesel showed promising results for the parameters studied and performed on par with the conventional diesel.They further claimed that by converting 10% of the total production of Castor oil to bio-diesel can minimize the global carbon-dioxide emissions by 79,782 tonnes per annum with zero carbon footprint.

For further reference:http://www.springerlink.com/content/u8535p22463r8377/