Have you missed learning about plant poisons? Well, it’s your lucky day! Today is our first crossover of season three with our friend Matt Candeias of In Defense of Plants. In this episode we delve into the castor bean plant Ricinus communis and its two notorious products: castor oil and the star of the show, ricin. Join us as we learn about ricin’s storied history, which leads us through political assassinations and efficiency in engines, the biology of ricin, which horrifies us with its lethality, and finally, the ecology of the plant, which surprises us with its strategic partnerships.

Looking for more ways to cure your plant blindness? Check out In Defense of Plants at indefenseofplants.com and follow Matt on twitter @indfnsofplnts.

History	Biology
Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.  Investigation of a ricin-containing envelope at a postal facility—South Carolina, 2003.  MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003;52:1129-113114627953	Olsnes, Sjur, and Jurij V. Kozlov. “Ricin.” Toxicon 39.11 (2001): 1723-1728.
Crompton R, Gall D. Georgi Markov: death in a pellet.  Med Leg J. 1980;48:51-626997719	Audi, Jennifer, et al. “Ricin poisoning: a comprehensive review.” Jama 294.18 (2005): 2342-2351.
Dawson, Warren R. “Studies in Medical History:(a) The Origin of the Herbal.(b) Castor-oil in Antiquity.” Aegyptus 10.1 (1929): 47-72.	Challoner, Kathryn R., and Margaret M. McCarron. “Castor bean intoxication.” Annals of Emergency Medicine 19.10 (1990): 1177-1183.
Hale, Martha L. “Ricin-From Pharaohs to Bioterrorists and Beyond.” (2014).	Musshoff, Frank, and Burkhard Madea. “Ricin poisoning and forensic toxicology.” Drug testing and analysis 1.4 (2009): 184-191.
Knight B. Ricin—a potent homicidal poison.  BMJ. 1979;1:350-351421122	Tyagi, Nikhil, et al. “Potential therapeutic applications of plant toxin-ricin in cancer: challenges and advances.” Tumor Biology 36.11 (2015): 8239-8246.
Olsnes S. The history of ricin, abrin and related toxins.  Toxicon. 2004;44:361-37015302520	Díaz, Raquel, et al. “Selective CXCR4+ cancer cell targeting and potent antineoplastic effect by a nanostructured version of recombinant ricin.” Small 14.26 (2018): 1800665.
	Vance, David J., and Nicholas J. Mantis. “Progress and challenges associated with the development of ricin toxin subunit vaccines.” Expert review of vaccines 15.9 (2016): 1213-1222.

Botany

Seed Elaiosome Mediates Dispersal by Ants and Impacts Germination in Ricinus communis by Rohit Sasidharan and Radhika Venkatesan

Allelochemicals in castor (Ricinus communis L.) plants and their impact on pest larval feeding as anti-herbivore defensive by Pathipati Usha Rani & M.V. Ravibabu

Toxicology and Human Environments by Ernest Hodgson

Chemical Warfare Agents and Risks to Animal Health by Tina Wismer

General Mechanisms of Plant Defense and Plant Toxins  by Axel Mithöfer and Massimo E. Maffei

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