Gyan Aro Chem

Mandoli, Delhi

Castor is found widespread in the tropical regions and it is native to the south eastern Mediterranean region, East Africa and India. It is widely grown as an ornamental plant also apart from using its oil.

Ricinus communis grows widespread in tropical climate countries and is a native to the Mediterranean basis, East Africa and India. The plant is of invasive nature and can often be found on wasteland also. The plant is grown as a decorative plant also and it grows to height of 2 to 3 meters if the temperature is around 200C. It can grow in cooler climate like in south England and if it is a sheltered place there are no chances of it getting frost damage.

The plant was widely used in the parks of Toronto, Ontario, and other places of Canada during the Edwardian times. The plant grows wild in South California. The castor seeds is said to have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to the 4000 BC. It was widely used for burning lamps as it was slow burning. The Greeks used it for lighting lamps, as body ointments and improving hair growth and texture. It is believed that Cleopatra used it to brighten the white of her eyes. Ancient Egyptian described Castrol oil as a laxative also. The use of the oil in India has been documented since 2000 BC in lamps and as local medicine as a laxative, purgative and cathartic in Unani, Ayurveda and other medical systems. The oil is said to have been used for treating arthritis and given to children as medicine for de-worming. It is widely used in China also for centuries.

Extraction Process:

Extraction of oil is done in a similar manner to that for most oil seeds. The first stage of extraction is pre-pressing using high pressure screw press called expeller. The extracted oil is then filtered and the material removed from the oil is fed back into the stream along with the fresh material. The castor cake contains 8-10% oil and this is crushed and solvent extraction is done with heptanes to extract further oil.

Commonly Known Benefits:

It is widely used to induce labour from ancient times. The oil starts working as soon as it reached the bowels and many women use it to induce labour. The contraction usually starts 1-3 hours after taking the oral dose of the oil

Physico Chemical Properties:

Description

The olive tree is a native to the Mediterranean region. It has spread across the world over time. But still all the major commercial producers of Olive Oil are the Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain in Europe, Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in Asia as well as Tunisia and Algeria in Africa.

Olive trees grow in the light soil and reasonably warm weather. Rich soil as well as very cold weather is not suitable for it. Once grown, the trees last for centuries and remain productive too. So, the farmers should just take care of grown up trees and prune them correctly to keep reaping harvests for decades. The fruits are harvested around the autumn or winter in most cases.

As discussed earlier, olive trees are native to the Mediterranean region and evidences suggesting that it was consumed even by prehistoric people. Archaeological evidences suggest domestication of the species in the Asia Minor and the earliest known containers of Olive Oil in Greece date back to 3500 BC. So, the ancient civilizations of the region learnt its benefits and usage quite early.

Olive oil is extracted by crushing the olive fruits. The oil components of the fruits are stored in the mesocarp cells within lipo vacuoles. The fruits are first washed well and then crushed using various olive press machines to separate oil from the rest of the pulp.

Commonly known Benefits

Olive oil is known for various health benefits and hence experts suggest it as a cooking medium and are rated ahead of other refined vegetable oils.

It is known to have mono saturated fatty acids which are known to protect the heart from coronary diseases. Also, in the diet the other types of oils that it replaces are higher in Omega-6 while it doesn't affect the ones with Omega-3 fatty acids. This basically means that Olive oil ensures a more balance diet in terms of Omega Acids of various types.

Olive oil consumption also helps in cholesterol regulation which provides health benefits as cholesterol oxidation has anti-inflammatory, anti hypertensive as well as anti thrombotic effects. Also it contains several useful antioxidants which are not easily available in other oils. Also, new researches have shown that certain properties of Olive Oil can control malignant tumors in the breast, prostate and the digestive tract.

Considering all these benefits, Olive Oil has found universal acceptance nowadays as a healthy cooking medium

Physico Chemical Properties: