Category Archives: Castor seeds

Profiling of catalyst in castor seed

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Castor bean biochemistry has long been thoroughly analysed in the context of lipids as they are industrially potent metabolites but profiling of other bio-molecules and their control over co-ordinated metabolism are not comprehensive.

Biochemists have made research on castor bean derived enzyme,phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase(PEPC) which is an ubiquitous enzyme,implicated to carbon metabolism.The level and functional activity of this enzyme is  variable in castor seed and subjected to different molecular mechanisms for a regulation in functional activity during the course of seed development  .Recently, people have identified a modification called mono-ubiquitination in PEPC but its relevance to enzyme’s activity is not well understood and hence to identify its significance, biochemists have purified the enzyme and subjected for in vitro activity,inhibitor sensitivity and other physiochemical parameters.The results indicated a striking difference in enzyme behaviour between modified and unmodified versions with monoubiquitinated forms had a increased functional activity and enabled the researchers to detect the importance of this mechanism in developing castor seeds.Immunoelectroblotting and advanced mass spectrometry were the major analytical tools of this study.

The research is unique as it is often proved that ubiquitination will normally direct the labeled targets for proteolytic degradation for turn over.However in this case it is contrary and proves that this post translational modification in proteins is not completely favouring protein catabolism.

For further info:http://www.jbc.org/content/283/44/29650.full.pdf+html

Molecular profiling of castor allergic protein

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Castor seed is a potent source of allergic proteins and 2s albumin is a principal protein among them.Scientists have monitored the  expression of this protein over different developmental phases of the castor seed and plant.They were able to observe the expression of this protein  after 2 weeks of pollination and continued to exist till the completion of seed germination.Post germination events witnessed a loss in the levels of this allergen to a significant event.The researchers also detected that the protein adopts a post translational modification and found to be localized in endosperm and cotyledons of the seed during the course of its existence. Immuno-electroblotting and Quantitative PCR were the techniques applied in this research study to address the problems.

2S albumins are potent allergens from castor beans which affects the cultivation of castor in several countries as field workers find it difficult to physically handle the oil seed.Understanding the expression pattern of the allergen would assist the scientists to regulate the synthesis of this protein and ultimately generate a seed with levels of 2s albumin safe to cultivate and harvest castor.

For further reference:http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf071272p

Toxicological analysis of ricin protein.

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Ricin is a toxic protein in Castor.Italian researchers have conducted an ocular toxicological study of ricin in rabbits.They administered variable concentrations of the toxin onto the rabbit’s eyes and evaluated its toxic function.The experimental study revealed that the toxin induced inflammation response in eyes of experimental animals and they even removed the eyes and noticed microscopic pathological manifestations of the toxin.As a way of identifying the neutralizer to the toxin,they evaluated phosphate buffer and 10% lactose solutions with the former had no effect while latter exhibited a partial toxin neutralization activity.The dead subjects were also analyzed.Results indicated that an internal injury to the organs was also imposed by the toxin which further made scientists to conclude that the inability of the neutralizer solutions was due to the rapid absorption  and circulation of the toxin in the system.

This research information is of immense significance as history has witnessed the castor toxin as a biological weapon in Georgi Markov’ assassination.So research studies would be valuable tools to best combat the toxin under the conditions of emergency.

For detailed Reference:http://www.iovs.org/content/46/4/1113.full.pdf

Apoptosis in castor seed endosperm during germination.

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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 cultivation emerging in Brazil

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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

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Processed castor bean meal as a probable feed for poultry.

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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

Castor cultivation for biodiesel production.

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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

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Mozambican firm plans to establish a Castor oil plant:

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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

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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

First Tetraploid Castor Plant from Israeli Firm, Kaiima

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Scientists from an Israeli seed company,Kaiima have produced the world’s first tetraploid castor plant with the objective of improving multiple traits in diploid castor including oil content for biofuel production, photosynthetic efficiency and better adaption to local field conditions.Reports say that the firm has followed an unique biotechnological technique called “Clean Genome Manipulation”(CGM) to achieve chromosomal doubling instead of a routine colchicine treatment  which seems to be associated with induction of DNA lesions in plants where the genome is manipulated by exact multiples of the basic chromosome number.The producers further believe that the plant would revolutionize the biofuel production through increased yield after a successful evaluation of field trials.In addition, the castor plant produced is not a Genetically Modified Plant says the product manager of Kaiima, Ariel Krolzig.

Further info: http://bit.ly/fJYLf5