With continued scope for natural products in global pharma divisions, a recent press release from firm, Morinda Bioactives, USA which it claims to be specialized in formulation of drugs on phyto-chemicals has reported that its launch of a new stream of drugs called Shield Biomedicals at International Leadership Conference Salt Lake City, Utah, contain castor oil derived chemicals as base ingredients to contribute for moisture retention function. As per the manufacturer’ statement, their ointment formulation with castor oil is a home remedy to wounds and burns etc with pain relieving properties.

Information source such as this keeps boosting the potential of castor oil in high value market sectors which the producer nations should realize well to upgrade their line of products from this vegetable oil, gifted for industries.

For reference: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4480034/morinda-bioactives-releases-new.html

It is exciting to note that “Adalidda Castor” project has provisions for crop management  by software systems and optimistic developers of the study say that benefits could be reaped through direct employment for 719 people, revenues for 20,000 households in contract farming, capacity building for farm workers and their families through education and medical facilities, apart from principal investors and other stakeholders’ advantages in the supply chain.

For reference: http://www.ongreen.com/sites/ongreen.com/files/business_plan-adalidda_castort-january_2012.pdf

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/

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

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

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

Application of an eco-product for the management of pests is a routine and systematic process.However it is important to see that castor oil is readily amenable for degradation and dilution on spraying under open aquatic system to have an extended half-life against the target pests.In adition,lipids are primary metabolites and can lead to different derivatives which are not anticipated to pose any reverse effect on mosquito larvae survival and manipulation.

For reference: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Castor-oil-can-take-sting-out-of-mosquito-menace/Article1-715045.aspx

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

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

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