Castor Bean

The attractive beans of this highly toxic shrub are used to make Castor Oil (which contains no toxins, but it tastes like it does). The mash left from oil production contains the super toxin Ricin, of which one milligram is enough to kill a man. One bean is said to be sufficient to kill a child, if broken or chewed, but if it is swallowed whole it is harmless. Believe or Don't: in West Africa Castor Beans are used as a food flavoring.

The seeds in the photo tried to kill me. I took a couple branches with seed heads home, and set them on one side of the kitchen. It turns out, when they dry, they fire the beans with great force. Some sailed all the way across my large kitchen and landed on the counter near my coffee grinder. At first I thought they were spilled coffee beans and almost put them in the grinder, but noticed the different color in time.

Castor oil was once used mainly internally as a laxative and to induce vomiting. Today it is used mainly externally for various ailments and has become highly valuable in the manufacture of plastics and for industrial processing.

Castor oil has a very high film strength and slipperiness at high temperatures and pressures so is used as a motor oil for race cars (Castrol R). Those of us who were enthusiasts back in the days when cars were cars can go all nostalgic by splashing a little castor oil on a sheet of metal hot enough to make it smoke.

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Cooking:   In West Africa Castor Beans are ground and fermented to make a flavoring paste called Ogiri-Igbo. Yes, Caster Beans are extremely toxic, but 4 days of fermentation is said to destroy the toxins - not that I'm going to try that.