Two Oklahoma Lawmakers File Bills to Bar Castor Beans
by Randy Krehbiel (Durant Daily Democrat) …Ricin, which can be extracted from crushed castor beans, is so potent a toxin that a dose equivalent to a few grains of salt induces a slow, agonizing death marked by vomiting and diarrhea. Most famously, ricin was used in the 1970s to assassinate a Bulgarian dissident on a London street. A ricin-coated pellet was fired from a gun disguised as an umbrella.
…But state Sen. Mike Schulz, R-Altus, and Rep. Dale DeWitt, R-Braman, did not have terrorism or espionage in mind when they filed their castor bean bills this fall. They were concerned about a more direct threat – inadvertent contamination of the food supply.
…Although castor plants are fairly common as ornamentals, their commercial production is virtually unknown in Oklahoma. With growing interest in them for biofuels, however, wheat growers and other crop producers became concerned about a burst of speculative cultivation spreading castor and ricin residue into fields, planting and harvesting equipment, storage bins and trucks and railroad cars used for transporting grain. READ MORE
