Castor oil makes a comeback

Stephen Kaffka, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, is field testing a variety of potential biofuel crops in California, including castor, wrote Harry Cline in Western Farm Press.

Among the possibilities are canola, amelina, meadowfoam, sugar beets, sweet sorghum, sugar cane and switchgrass. Castor, however, is the only on with a yellow "Do Not Cross" tape circling the experimental plots. The warning stems from the fact that castor beans contain the potent toxin ricin. Ricin is a considered both a chemical and biological weapon, according to the article.

Cline wrote that researchers at Texas AgriLife Extension found castor to be drought and salt tolerant. Kaffka has trials in the San Joaquin Valley, Salinas, Imperial Valley and at UC Davis to verify the Texas work.

Kaffka told a field day audience at the West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points that the oil crop is worth $3,000 to $5,000 per ton, thus the renewed interest in it as a crop with an oil market today in the U.S. and a future market for biofuel.

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