In nature, not only animals have self-defense tools, but also plants. Many plants protect themselves by making themselves highly toxic, which can deter people. However, because of their harmless appearance, people often overlook them.
It's like the scary "broken intestinal grass" just by listening to the name.
For example, the "perfect poison" of the assassination world that we introduced today has an unremarkable appearance, but it is very toxic. What is even more frightening is that this "poison" is found in many parts of the mainland, and even grows in your yard.
So, what exactly is it? Is it really that scary?
Obviously, it looks like a perfectly normal plant
Castor is the "perfect poison"
This perfect poison is exactly the castor that many people have seen, it belongs to the castor genus of herbs, very adaptable, sometimes casually sprinkled on the side of the road can grow. Therefore, castor was very common in the countryside in the last century.
At that time, many children would also pick its seeds and string them together, playing with them, not knowing that the objects they were fiddling with in their hands were actually highly toxic.
Seemingly harmless castor beans
So, which part of castor is poisonous?
According to research, the whole plant of castor is poisonous, of which castor seed has the highest toxin content, so it is also the most toxic. If someone has ever picked a castor seed, then the first impression of it must be "smooth and shiny", with a beautiful pattern on it, but under the beautiful appearance, there is actually a deadly toxin.
The earliest discovery of ricin by humans was in 1888, when a German scientist isolated a poisonous protein from castor seeds during his doctoral studies, which he named ricin.
Schematic diagram of ricin protein
This toxin belongs to the ribosome inactivated protein, which is an isodimer composed of two polypeptide chains A and B connected by a disulfide bond. In this case, there are many ways of poisoning, whether it is oral, inhaled or injected, it will poison people.
According to the data, adult ricin inhalation and intramuscular injection LD50 is about 22 μg/kg, oral LD50 is about 1 mg/kg, and its toxicity is 385 times that of organophosphorus nerve agent VX and 6000 times that of cyanide, which is highly toxic.
Schematic diagram of biosynthesis of ricin
One might ask, there are many more toxic things in nature, so why is it said that ricin is the perfect poison? In fact, it can be called the perfect poison, mainly because the preparation process is relatively simple and very stable under natural conditions.
In the case of these two advantages, many terrorists will use it as a biological and chemical weapon to create an attack, and as far as the president of the Us White House is concerned, many have received "letters" containing ricin, which should be regarded as a naked provocation.
In addition, the strength of ricin is that people have not yet found a specific anti-virus agent for it, and can only be treated according to the reality of the poisoned person.
The Pentagon is clearing mail containing ricin
For example, in 1978, the Bulgarian official Markov was stabbed by a "poisonous umbrella" with ricin, and he did not feel anything when he was stabbed in the leg, but a rash appeared where he was hit by the tip of the umbrella.
Later, he did not go to the hospital for examination, but in the middle of the night, Markov began to develop symptoms of high fever, and eventually sent to the hospital for treatment was ineffective, and unfortunately died.
From this famous "political assassination" incident, it can be seen that ricin has a certain delay depending on the dose. And it is this situation that often makes people overlook and eventually miss the "rescue time".
Markov with an umbrella that stabbed him
In this case, it can indeed be called the "perfect poison" of the assassination world, after all, it is not only extremely difficult to find, but also has no antidote. Perhaps because of this, many terrorists like to use ricin, even if they are detected under layers of screening, which can make people feel uneasy.
So, how does ricin react after poisoning? Acute reactions usually occur early, such as fever, hemorrhagic necrosis, ascites, and so on. And according to scientists' research, ricin can not only activate the mitochondrial pathway of cell death, but also directly interfere with the repair mechanism of DNA, which means that it can kill people in many ways.
A few grains can kill a small castor bean
Of course, the destructiveness of ricin still depends on its concentration, as we said above, if the intake does not reach a certain limit, then the poisoning situation will not be particularly serious, in this case, it can still be clinically rescued.
Studies have suggested that apoptosis caused by ricin is not A-chain dependent, i.e., it belongs to a pathway that is not associated with inhibition of protein synthesis. Ricin cytotoxicity is significantly dose-dependent, leading to cell necrosis at high concentrations and apoptosis at low concentrations.
Schematic diagram of ricin toxicology
I believe that everyone sees here, has a certain understanding of the castor creature and ricin, since this guy's toxicity is really so terrible, why is it not "forbidden", and even often appear in everyone's yard?
Exclusive castor "memory kill"
Many people who grew up in the countryside as children should be familiar with castor, which grew lush castor at school and on both sides of the path home. The leaves of these castor are very fat and have delicate lines on the leaf surface.
After the flowers have bloomed, they will grow castor fruit full of thorns, which looks like the "little hedgehog" of the plant kingdom, which does not tie hands at first, and in the autumn the spikes become very hard.
The capsule has castor beans with soft spines
In itself, castor is not everywhere, but at that time the state advocated the cultivation of castor, and this guy has a strong resistance to stress, and can grow in any mountain forest field.
This makes them ubiquitous, and when people see castor beans ripe in the autumn, they will be specially picked, dried, and finally peeled off their outer hard shells to reveal the fruit inside. These shiny castor seeds will eventually be sent to special processing plants, and people will also get paid for harvesting it.
Castor beans covered with a beautiful pattern
It is precisely because there is demand and remuneration that many people also grow this plant in their yards. It's like a weed that doesn't have to be taken care of and grows well in the courtyard.
In the harvest season, it can also make a little contribution to the family, even if it is not sold, people can wrap the picked castor seeds in the brim and beat it, let the oil soak in the cloth, and then use the cloth to wipe the bicycle and other objects.
Castor oil extracted from castor seeds
In addition, many children in rural areas will also light castor seeds for lighting, string them together with a rope and light them, not only can see the flames, but also hear the crackling sound.
It is worth mentioning that many people in that era did not know that castor contained high poison, and sometimes even used castor beans to stir-fry vegetables, as well as "castor oil scrambled eggs" this kind of home remedies.
After all, castor is a ubiquitous plant
Fortunately, the toxicity of castor will be reduced after heating, and because of the problem of taste, many people often taste a fresh and vomit. Otherwise, because of the accidental consumption of castor poisoning, I am afraid that the number of people will become very large.
In addition, although many people have planted and harvested castor, they do not understand why the state wants to promote planting, so what is the use value of castor?
Castor in the plantation
The value of castor is extremely high
In fact, from people's impression of castor at that time, it can be seen that its oil yield is very high, and this guy is indeed one of the top ten oil crops in the world, and the oil yield of castor seeds can reach 42 to 45%. With this advantage, it has been known as "green oil".
Castor oil alone is an important chemical raw material, whether used to produce lubricants, paints or surfactants, and has had thousands of chemical derivatives related to castor oil since its use.
Castor oil for use in the chemical industry
In the case of people paying more and more attention to clean energy, the value of castor has also risen, and the demand in the world is extremely high, and even treated as a strategic material by many countries.
It is worth mentioning that although we said above that castor is full of poison, it is also full of treasures in terms of use value. For example, castor leaves can be used to raise silkworms, the rhizome of castor is sometimes used as a traditional Chinese medicine to be used in medicine, in modern medical research, castor also contains some excellent "anti-cancer substances".
In general, the use value of castor is indeed very high. However, everyone should still be wary of poisoning, and do not risk their lives to try, after all, life is only once, do not really be killed by their curiosity.