Category: Botanical

Do read your labels of castor oil as well as you read your food labels?

Palma Christi l'Originelle and Palma Christi Gold are certified as cold pressed and hexane free.

Other grades of castor oil do not make these claims.

Understand the difference:

Cold Pressed vs Expeller Pressed

All cold pressed oils are expeller pressed. But all expeller pressed oils are not necessarily cold pressed. It all has to do with temperature.

What is Expeller Pressing?
Expeller pressing is a chemical-free mechanical process that extracts oil from seeds and nuts. This method of oil extraction is an alternative to the hexane-extraction method used for many conventional oils. The temperature reached during pressing depends on the hardness of the nut or seed. The harder the nut or seed, the more pressure required to extract the oil, which in turn creates more friction and higher heat. There is no external heat applied during the expeller pressing

Why Cold Press?
Delicate oils, or those in which flavor nuances are a key component, need to be treated with greater care in controlling processing factors. Oils that are cold pressed are expeller pressed in a heat-controlled environment to keep temperatures below 120 degrees F.

It’s important to note that, while Europe has rigorous standards in place for the terminology of cold pressing (fully unrefined oil extracted at temperatures below 122 degrees F), the phrase ‘cold pressed’ has been used erroneously in the U.S. for a number of years, often employed as a marketing technique for oils which have been expeller pressed or even refined (which exposes the oil to temperatures of up to 470 degrees F).

Category: Botanical

The Castor Oil plant (Ricinus Communis) is native to India, Africa and Central America and grows wild in most of the tropical and subtropical areas of the world. It was cultivated 6000 years ago by the Egyptians, who used the oil as fuel to burn in their lamps. It was known to Herodotus, who calls it Kiki, and states that it furnishes an oil much used by the Egyptians, in whose ancient tombs, seeds of Ricinus are found. Around the 4th century BC, it had already been introduced into Greece where it is cultivated even today under the same ancient name. It was employed medically in Europe during the early Middle Ages and used externally in skin diseases. In the 18th century, its cultivation in Europe as a medicinal plant had ceased and small supplies of the seeds and oil required for European medicine were obtained from Jamaica. The name "castor" was originally applied to the plant in Jamaica where it is called "Agnus castus", although it bears no resemblance to the south European plant of the same name. In Jamaica, the oil is extracted by cold pressing (without heat).

The oil has many good external uses. In China, it is used as a rub for deformed faces and joints. Warm Castor Oil is used as a rub for arthritis and rheumatism and as a bath oil, it relieves many skin problems. In Jamaica, the plant known as agnus castus is used to cure constipation and bodily pain. The oil applied to wounds will stop bleeding. Hot Castor Oil massaged into the hair will strengthen it and eliminate dandruff, lice, fleas, and other scalp problems. Mixed with olive oil, it will blacken hair and mixed with cocoa butter, it will make it grow. The leaves can be used in a bath to reduce swelling in the joints, to relieve all bodily pains, and to increase the flow of milk in nursing mothers.

Category: Botanical

Ricinus Communis continued.....

It was known to Herodotus, who calls it Kiki, and states that it furnishes an oil much used by the Egyptians, in whose ancient tombs seeds of Ricinus are met with. At the period when Herodotus wrote (the fourth century B.C.), it would appear to have been already introduced into Greece, where it is cultivated to the present day under the same ancient name.

We read of it being employed medicinally in Europe during the early Middle Ages: it is recorded that it was cultivated by Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon, in the middle of the thirteenth century, but later it fell into disuse, though Gerard (1597) was familiar with it under the name of Ricinus or Kik: the oil, he says, is called Oleum cicinum and used externally in skin diseases.

Plants are readily grown from seed, which should be sown on a hot bed early in March. When the plants come up, each should be planted in a separate small pot, filled with light soil and plunged into a fresh hot bed. The young plants are kept under glass till early in June, when they are hardened and put out.

In India, the oil is obtained from the seeds by shelling and crushing the seed between rollers. The crushed mass is then placed in hempen cloths and pressed in a screw or hydraulic press. The oil which exudes is mixed with water and heated till the water boils and the mucilaginous matter in the oil separates as a scum. It is next strained, then bleached in the sunlight and stored for exportation.

In France, the oil is obtained by macerating the bruised seeds in alcohol, but the process is expensive and the product inferior.

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Category: Botanical

Castor oil is a unique substance with an ancient history. Folk healers the world over have used it to treat a wide variety of conditions.

The healing attributed to it has been so complete and miraculous that people in the Middle Ages dubbed castor oil " Palma Christi " - the "Palm of Christ". The treatments using castor oil offered such relief that the newly-healed felt to have received an annointing at the hand of Christ. Also the over-sized leaf resembles that of a large hand, the palm of a large hand to be more precise, completing the imagery.

With the advances in modern science and medicine, the western world left natural/traditional remedies in favour of the newer, "trusted", and safe prescriptions neatly packaged for them. I certainly am not attacking "drugs" (as we commonly refer to them) but do, indeed, believe the traditional remedy has its place in today's modern world.

More and more, however, we find people returning to these original forms of treatment and finding equal if not better results while respecting the delicate balance of the human body.