$Id: castor-oil.malblog,v 1.2 2020/10/01 03:27:38 homer Exp $
| [ | Date | | | 2020-09-30 23:27 -0400 | ] |
| [ | Current movie | | | Chicago | ] |
From time to time, poison ricin gets in the news, as a now classic way to attempt to kill one's opponents (cf. Bulgarian umbrellas).
Ricin is in some way related to castor oil: they both come from the castor oil plant's seeds. Ricin is a potent poison for humans, especially when injected. Castor oil (« huile de ricin » in French) can be used as a laxative, and some generations may remember it, and its bitter taste, being routinely prescribed to them as children for health—exact claims are unclear to me: was it just for constipation, or did it have broader uses?
But what's with the name? As a French speaker, it is hard to dissociate the name "castor oil" from « castor », the French word for beaver. What relationship could there possibly be between the two? Castor oil comes from a plant, beavers are non-vegetal.
Apparently, this somewhat puzzling name is all because castor oil has risen ad a replacement for ancient product castoreum, which does come from beavers.
Quick links:
David Haguenauer
<www@kurokatta.org>
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