Taxon: Ricinus communis L.

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

TX°.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Common names:

• castor   (Source: Herbs Commerce ed2 ) – English
  
• castor-bean   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• castor-bean-plant   (Source: Dict Gard ) – English
  
• castor-oil-plant   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• palma-christi   (Source: Pl Book ) – English
  
• kasterolieboom   (Source: Weeds SAfr 2001 ) – Afrikaans
  
• kharwa'a   (Source: F Egypt ) – Arabic
  
• bi ma   (Source: F ChinaEng ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• ricin   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Palma Christi   (Source: Zander Ency ) – German
  
• Rizinus   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• Wunderbaum   (Source: Zander Ency ) – German
  
• jarak   (Source: Pl Res SEAs 14:115.) – Indonesian
  
• ricino   (Source: Mult Glossary Crops ) – Italian
  
• pimaja   (Source: F Korea ) – Transcribed Korean
  
• bafureira   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Portuguese
  
• carrapateiro   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Portuguese
  
• mamoneiro   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Portuguese
  
• rícino   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• higuerilla   (Source: Names Soukup ) – Spanish
  
• mbarika   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Swahili
  
• mbono mdogo   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Swahili
  
• mnyonyo   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Swahili
  
• ricin   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  
• lahung   (Source: Pl Res SEAs 14:115.) – Transcribed Thai
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Food additives: flavoring   (also for protective coatings of tablets fide Ency CNatIn)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide F TE Afr; Pl Book; Invasive Pl Spec)
  
• Fuels: potential as petroleum substitute/alcohol   (fide Amer J Pl SciBiotech 1:8. 2007)
  
• Invertebrate food: silkworms   (fide Use Pl WT Afr)
  
• Materials: beads   (fide Bot Beads World; as web document)
  
• Materials: lipids   (as lubricant or component of industrial products fide Ency CNatIn)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide Ency CNatIn; CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2; Biodiv Conserv 13:459. 2004)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide Kingsbury; Kellerman et al.; Lampe & McCann; Cooper & Johnson ed2)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Noxweed Aust; Invasive Pl Spec; Weeds SAfr 2001)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Ricinus communis from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• naturalized throughout tropics & subtropics

• also cultivated

• probable origin Africa

References:

• PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) (on-line resource).
• Afonin, A. N., S. L. Greene, N. I. Dzyubenko, & A. N. Frolov, eds. Interactive agricultural ecological atlas of Russia and neighboring countries. Economic plants and their diseases, pests and weeds (on-line resource).
• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Balakrishnan, N. P. & T. Chakrabarty. 2007. The family Euphorbiaceae in India; a synopsis of its profile, taxonomy and bibliography.
• Boulos, L. 1999–. Flora of Egypt.
• Burkill, H. M. 1985–2004. The useful plants of west tropical Africa.
• Cooper, M. R. & A. W. Johnson. 1998. Poisonous plants and fungi in Britain: animal and human poisoning. [poisonous].
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Erhardt, W. et al. 2008. Der große Zander: Enzyklopädie der Pflanzennamen.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Govaerts, R. et al. 2000. World checklist and bibliography of Euphorbiaceae.
• Henderson, L. 2001. Alien weeds and invasive plants: a complete guide to declared weeds and invaders in South Africa. Plant Protection Research Institute, Handbook 12.
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• International Seed Testing Association. 1982. A Multilingual Glossary of Common Plant-Names 1. Field crops, grasses and vegetables, ed. 2.
• Johnson, J. M.-F. et al. 2007. Biomass-bioenergy crops in the United States: A changing paradigm. Amer. J. Pl. Sci. Biotechnol. 1:8.
• Kala, C. P. et al. 2004. Prioritization of medicinal plants on the basis of available knowledge, existing practices and use value status in Uttaranchal, India. Biodivers. & Conservation 13:459.
• Kellerman, T. S. et al. 1988. Plant poisonings and mycotoxicoses of livestock in Southern Africa. [poisonous].
• Kingsbury, J. M. 1964. Poisonous plants of the United States and Canada. [poisonous].
• Lampe, K. F. & M. A. McCann. 1985. AMA handbook of poisonous and injurious plants. [poisonous].
• Lee, Y. N. 1997. Flora of Korea.
• Leung, A. Y. & S. Foster. 1996. Encyclopedia of common natural ingredients used in food, drugs, and cosmetics, ed. 2.
• Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Mun-Chan, B. et al. 1986. A checklist of the Korean cultivated plants. Kulturpflanze 34:125.
• Munro, D. B. Canadian poisonous plants information system (on-line resource).
• Parsons, W. T. & E. G. Cuthbertson. 1992. Noxious weeds of Australia.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Saldanha, C. J. & D. H. Nicolson. 1976. Flora of Hassan district.
• Smith, R. J. Botanical beads of the world (on-line resource).
• Soukup, J. 1970. Vocabulario de los nombres vulgares de la flora peruana. 292.
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa.
• Vibrans, H., ed. Malezas de México (on-line resource).
• Vossen, H. A. M. van der & B. E. Umali, eds. 2001. Vegetable oils and fats. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 14:115–120.
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Westphal, E. & P. C. M. Jansen, eds. 1989. A selection. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). A:237.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Ricinus communis.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Ricinus communis.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Ricinus communis.

Check other web resources for Ricinus communis L.:

• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• PROTABASE: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa's (PROTA's) online resource
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• Seed: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image
• Seeds: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image
• Seeds or fruits: Seed ID Workshop image, from Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio State University

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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