[TIL] Castor Bean, The Most Lethal Plant in the World ❌ 🍂
I was in my work routine, photographing some plants of my house to be able to follow my series "Nature in my House" here in my blog, when I came across the castor bean, which is a plant that I see a lot here in my region. I remember when I was a kid, my friends and I would play with each other, throwing those balls of the plant that left marks on our body because of their thorn. It was known as "The Castors Bean Battle". Was funny. I took and photographed this plant. Curious, I went to research on its properties, health benefits and contraindications and what I read, surprised me and I confess it was scary.
What I learned was that castor bean (ricinus communis) produces a toxic substance called "Ricinus", a lethal poison that is developed by the plant itself to protect its seeds. The most common form of poisoning is through the accidental ingestion of your seeds, either through ingestion or added to food. In humans, ricinus poisoning can cause multiple organ failure and can lead to death. The scariest thing is that there is no remedy or antidote against poisoning from the castor's seed intake
That was the big, scary lesson I learned today. A Warning: Beware of this plant my friends!
Thank You for reading my post!
Muito Obrigado por ter lido o meu post!
We have some growing wild here in Iowa.
You make an interesting useful posts. Thank you!
I'm thankful dear @tanata :)
Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much @taraamin77
This is fascinating! Can you please edit to provide the link where you found the information?
Hello @eureka. To write this post I was not based on any text on the internet, but rather with information from friends who are biomedical and naturalists. Of course, I checked with the knowledge in some biology books. But I know there may be several pages on the internet that deal with this, it's just a search on google.
Thanks
Sorry to have missed this post earlier! I grow castor beans some years and enjoy having it in my garden. It is such a large, statuesque plant. People driving by have stopped and asked me - what is that plant? My aunt grew them for many years, too, even when her children were little. Nobody ever tried to eat the seeds. It would be easy enough to just cut the sed pods off before they got too mature. But the seeds are really pretty. : )
One common name I heard people call the castor bean is 'gopher plant' - because people thought it would keep moles and gophers out of the garden. I think it is worth growing! Just eat the weeds, not the castor bean seeds! :P
Thank you very much for your comment @haphazard-hstead. :)
You're welcome
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