Castor crops can be grown on a wide range of soils, provided they are fairly deep and well-drained. Heavy clay with poor drainage, and marshy soils are unsuitable. The highly suitable soils for castor plantation are deep, moderately fertile, slightly acidic (pH 5.0 to 6.5), well-drained, and sandy loam. Excessively fertile soils are not desirable, as they favour excessive vegetative growth at the expense of seed yield.
Castor requires a well-pulverized seed bed with loose subsoil up to 45 cm deep. However, it does not require a fine tilt, but even germination. It requires adequate moisture for a longer period in the seedbed, preferably to a depth of 15-20 cm.
Crop Duration, Weather conditions, and Castor Plantation methods
Castor is a tropical crop and an annual crop that is grown by sowing seeds in hot weather. It requires appropriate and consistent rainfall. It is planted during July and August. The crop has a duration of 4 to 5 months and is harvested in December and January.
However, the sowing and harvesting periods within the country differ as per regions where the crop is grown. Castor seed takes around 15 days in the winter to germinate, depending on the prevailing temperatures. The plants may attain a height of 30–90 cm, but the same varieties, if planted in fertile soils with good rainfall conditions, may attain heights of 3–4 meters.
Castor Harvesting
Three methods of Harvesting are,
- Manual harvesting
- Mechanized Harvesting
- Combine harvesting
Castor proved to be a genuine source of oil suitable for multiple Industrial uses.
General Information About Crops
A tall, glabrous annual, sometimes shrubby or sub-herbaceous, with alternate, broad palmate leaves Seven to many lobed, serrate, flowers large, in terminal sub panicle racemes, monoecism, apetalous, upper male crowded lower female.
In the case of spiny fruits, there is variation in the length of the spines. In some cases, the spines are short, and in others, they are long. Their oil content varies from 45 per cent to 57 per cent. On ornamental plants, very little fruits are typically present.
Scientific Specifications
The castor oil plant, Ricinus communi (sometimes called mole bean after the belief that the “beans” can be placed in mole tunnels to poison animals), is a plant species of the Euphorbiaceae. It is a sole member of the genus Ricinus and of the subtribe Ricininae.
Kingdom Plantae
Division Magnoliophyta
Class Magnoliopsida
Order Malpighiales
Family Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily Acalyphoideae
Tribe Acalypheae
Subtribe Ricininae
Genus Ricinus
Species R. communis
Binomial name: Ricinus communis
Castor Oil Content or Composition
Castor Oil contained 90% of the fatty acids in castor oil ricinoleic acid. Ricinoleic acid, a monounsaturated, 18-carbon fatty acid, has a hydroxyl functional group at the twelfth carbon, a very uncommon property for a biological fatty acid. This functional group causes ricinoleic acid (and castor oil) to be unusually polar and also allows chemical derivatization that is not practical with other biological oils.
Since it is a polar dielectric with a relatively high dielectric constant, highly refined and dried Castor oil is sometimes used as a dielectric fluid within high-performance high-voltage capacitors. Castor oil also contains 3–4% of both oleic and linoleic acids.
Acid Name Avg.
Percentage Range
Ricinoleic acid: 85 to 95%
Oleic acid: 6 to 2%
Linoleic acid: 5 to 1%
Linolenic acid: 1 to 0.5%
Stearic acid: 1 to 0.5%
Palmitic acid: 1 to 0.5%
Dihydroxystearic acid: 0.5 to 0.3%
Fatty Acids: 0.5 to 0.2%
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