Studies on the detoxication of castor seed pomace

Abstract

Summary Solvent extracted castor seed pomace has been shown to have a high acute oral toxicity for the rat and chick. This acute toxicity has been destroyed by various physical and chemical treatments designed to denature the toxic protein constituent, ricin. Of these, autoclaving for 15 minutes at 125°C. produced essentially complete destruction of ricin with minimal changes in the physical character of the pomace. Biological tests of the feeding value of the detoxified pomace as a protein source indicated that the material was not of high biological value. Microbiological analysis of the total seed protein for the principal amino acids showed that the protein contained relatively large amounts of glutamic acid and was serisously deficient in tryptophan. The methionine content was also inadequate and the lysine was marginal.