Useful and medicinal properties of castor-oil ordinary

Synonyms: paradise tree, castor oil, ricin, wondrous tree, paradise tree, Turkish hemp, klyachische.

Description. In the tropics, castor oil grows in one place for up to 10 years. This is a perennial tree plant of the Euphorbiaceae family up to 10-13 m in height with a stem thickness of 30-50 cm.

In southern Europe, castor beans are two to three years old shrubs up to 3-5 m high. In the CIS, it is known as an annual herbaceous plantheight up to 2 m, although some varieties of it and reach 3-5 m height. The stem is hollow, greenish or reddish. Root core, penetrating into the depth of 2-4 m and sideways to 2 m. Branches are glabrous, green, reddish or brownish, mostly with a waxy coating. Leaves are regular, long-petioled, large( up to 1 m across), shiny, with 7-11 lobes. Inflorescence - a conical brush with a length of up to 50 cm, in the lower part of which are male, and in the upper - female flowers. Fruit - a three-cavity box with one seed in the nest;the seed is oval, shiny, mosaic or mottled. Weight 1000 - seeds 70-1000 g.

Medicinal raw materials: seeds.

Biological features. Kleshchevina is a warm, light and moisture-loving crop, demanding for soil fertility. In areas where during the summer less than 200 mm of precipitation falls, cultivation of it is unreliable. Kleshchevina has many forms and varieties, which are divided into two main groups: large-seeded and small-seeded. The latter have increased oiliness - about 50-60%, large-seeded contain up to 40-50% of oil. Small-seed varieties of castor oil are the most common in Ukraine.

Distribution. It is found in the wild in India, on the islands of Ceylon and Java, in the tropical western part of Africa, in the Near and Middle Asia and Afghanistan.

Homeland is tropical Africa. Kleshchevina rises in almost all countries of the world( in India, on the island of Ceylon, in China, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc.).The world's center of production of its seeds is India.

In the CIS, castor oil is cultivated as an annual plant in the North Caucasus, Ukraine, Volgograd and Rostov regions, as well as in Central Asian countries.

Chemical composition. The seeds of castor beans contain protein substances, gums, resins and up to 52% of the non-drying fat castor oil, which contains the poisonous alkaloid ricin.

Application. Castor oil, obtained from castor seeds, has a very wide application. In medicine, it is used as a harmless laxative;is also used in ophthalmic and gynecological practice;It is recommended in the treatment of ulcers, burns, to soften the skin in the form of ointments and balms;helps to improve hair growth. Used in textile production for the manufacture of paints, in the aviation industry for the lubrication of rapidly rotating motors as not freezing in the cold;in leather production for softening of leather, in soap, perfume, paint and metal and metal industries;is used in the manufacture of linoleum, for the production of strong cement paste in construction, etc. Of the stalk of castor oil, a coarse fiber is obtained for ropes.

Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. The most favorable for castor beans are chernozems with good structure. The best predecessors are winter crops going along a fertilized couple. High crops yield castor oil on sandy and loamy fertile chernozems.

Soil treatment. Winter plowing is carried out two to three weeks after the stubble is harvested to a depth of 27-30 cm. In the early spring, the field is harrowed, and then cultivated to a depth of 10-12 cm, followed by harrowing.

Prior to sowing, cultivating with a cultivator for a depth of 7-10 cm is repeated, which reduces soil contamination and significantly increases yield.

Application of fertilizers. Usually, castor is the second crop after fertilized steam. If the castor oil is sown in an unhandled predecessor, then under the early autumn plowing, a mixture of organic and mineral fertilizers should be applied at approximately such doses: manure - 10-15 t / ha, superphosphate 2.0-2.5 c / ha, ammonium sulphate- 1.0-1.5 c / ha and potassium salt - 1.0-1.5 c / ha.

During the summer, two fertilizing should be done with local fertilizers in the form of slurry, bird droppings and ash. In the absence of local fertilizers, ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate, superphosphate and potassium salt are added. At the same time, the first feeding should be after the castor's break, and the second at the beginning of flowering. Fertilizers should be made from the calculation of: ammonium nitrate 0.8-1.5 centner / ha, superphosphate 1-2 centners / hectare, potassium salt or potassium chloride 0.7-1.0 centner / ha.

Reproduction. Kleshchevina reproduces directly by sowing seeds in the soil. Large seeds collected from central brushes give better results both in terms of yield and quality. It is most expedient to sow castor oil when the soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm reaches 8-10 ° C.

The best way of sowing is the square-nesting method carried out by the seed drill SS-6, which has a special device for exact placement of the nests with a feeding area of ​​70x70 cm. The row seeding rate for wide rows for small-seed varieties is 35-40 kg / ha, and for large-50-60 kg / ha. When sprouts appear, a mechanical cutting of bouquets with a cut-through width of 50-60 cm and a bouquet length of 20 cm is made. Two or three plants are left in the bouquet. With the nesting method of sowing, as well as with manual breakthrough, the seeding rate for small seeds is 15-20 kg / ha, and for large seeds - 25-30 kg / ha.

The depth of seeded seeds in a moist and heavy soil in texture is between 6-10 cm, and in light soils and dry spring, the depth of embedding should be 10-12 cm.

Care of plantations. To obtain amicable shoots, the field is harrowed with a heavy harrow in one or two tracks across rows of sowing. Then the

row cultivators are systematically loosened with cultivators with simultaneous weeding of the weeds around the plants. With the advent of the second real sheet, a breakthrough is made. To increase the yield and accelerate the maturation of seeds, it is recommended to pinch the tops of the main stem and lateral branches( chasing) at the stage of appearance of four to five real leaves. This method increases the yield of castor oil to 1-3 c / ha.

Additional pollination of castor oil also contributes to higher yields. This method consists in transferring pollen from one plant to another during flowering by shaking the pollen from the inflorescences of one plant to the inflorescence of another or in transferring the pollen with a soft mitten.

Harvesting. Drilling and cracking of the boxes in the lower part of the brush indicate the maturation of the seeds. Therefore, as soon as the boxes are browned, immediately start cleaning to avoid shedding of seeds. The first to ripen the boxes on the central brushes. The harvesting of not completely ripened seeds causes a decrease in their oil content and leads to a decrease in the quality of the oil, which becomes unsuitable for use in the aviation industry. Because of the non-simultaneous ripening of seeds, their harvesting is carried out selectively in two or four stages. However, up to 80% of the entire harvest falls on the first cleaning of the central brushes. This part of the plant is the most valuable, and it should be threshed separately. Types of castor beans with non-cracking boxes are removed by special harvesters. The moisture content of seeds to be stored should not exceed 8-10%.

Seed growing. To obtain seeds on the plantations, special areas are allocated, on which high agricultural techniques are carried out or seed plots are specially laid. The seed plot is planted with selected seeds taken from the central brushes. These seeds are passed through a winnowing machine in strong wind to select the largest ones. Then warm the water to a temperature of 40-45 ° C, pour it into the barrel and pour the seeds there for three to four hours. Seeds that sink to the bottom are sown in three to four hours to the seed plot, and the seeds that floated on the

surface are used as commodity. During the growing season on the seed plot, weeding is carried out and all non-typical plants are removed for this variety. Before harvesting, the best central brushes are selected on the seed plot, the seeds of which are used for sowing the next year.

The average yield of castor seeds is about 10-12 centners per hectare, and in the best farms of Ukraine and the North Caucasus yields are 20-25 centners per hectare.