Plant Poison - Ricin as a Bioweapon Choice

Poison, is something a lot of people are familiar with. I was seeing a movie today, and someone in the movie was trying to poison a person with a powdered substance. At the end of the movie, it was said to be a poison from a natural plant. My sister was surprised that natural plants could be poisonous but then I explained to her what she needed to know about poison.

I started taking her to 1978 when Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian writer working for the BBC in London was poisoned with ricin. The poison started with pain in his ankle as a result of a hit from the tip of an umbrella. It looked like an accident at first, but over time it was certain it was an assassination.

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In our world, there are a number of poisonous plants that are grown in different parts and regions. A quick piece of advice, be careful of the trees you stay under when it is raining. Have you ever heard of the Manchineel tree also known as poison guava or spurges, found in the tropical regions of South America and North America? If at any time you stay under the Manchineel tree when it is raining, you should expect blisters on your skin. This is not taking away the fact that its fruit is poisonous. Talking about the fruit of trees being poisonous, have you heard of the pong-pong tree (Cerbera odollam), it is regarded as a suicide tree as a result of its poisonous fruit.

While there are a lot of plants that are poisonous, some plants are synonymous with assassination in history one that I mentioned before is Ricin, which is gotten from Castor Bean Plant, and the other plant is the Belladonna plant, also known as the deadly nightshade. Let me quickly say that these two plants are not completely deadly or poisonous. You see, the both plant have valuable pharmacological properties making them very important in treating so many illnesses, such as in cancer, and other numerous diseases. I was told by someone a few months ago that they needed castor oil for the treatment of a particular health issue.

Let's pick them one after the other. So that very good-looking multi-striped seed with a knitted head known as the castor oil bean contains a toxic compound known as ricin. It has been used in political assassinations and other Bio-crimes. You might think it is a scarce plant, but in reality, it isn't scarce. It was first found in countries such as Ethiopia, and India, but in recent times, it is found all over the world. The possibility of you finding it around is high, if you live in temperate or tropical regions but it is possible that you would get arrested for just planting castor beans in your compound in some countries. Also, the plant produces over 100 thousand seeds during its reproduction season. The castor beans produce oil which makes up 50% of the seed. Maybe you can check for the benefits of the oil but trust me, there are a lot but while castor oil has numerous importance, the seed also contains ricin which is a poisonous substance that can be lethal at 3 to 6 beans.

Have you thought of how medications work in your body, I mean the timeframe before action? This is just the same with ricin. If a person inhales ricin, it would have a higher and faster effect compared to a person who swallows it. People who get risin poison through injection, like in the case of the person with the umbrella die faster. You do not need to ask why but for ease, the reason is that it is having direct contact with the bloodstream when injected or inhaled, but with ingestion, it goes through the stomach.

Ricin inactivates ribosomes thereby killing the functionality of a cell causing the cells to die, and depending on which organ is closest, Ricin would damage them. For instance, in the case of inhaling, the lungs are affected. If you think ricin has not been used in recent times, then you should check through the Obama tenure as president, to confirm if he was sent letters with ricin in them. The risk of having a health issue with castor oil exists as a result of errors leading to bronchial asthma.

Personally, I believe that the war treaty has been the reason why castor ricin hasn't been used in the war recently as a bioweapon, and has become the choice for assassination. Also, ricin is less toxin compared to other bioweapons like anthrax or botulinum, so that could be another reason for not using it.

Reference

• https://www.usagm.gov/news-and-information/threats-to-press/georgi-markov/
• https://www.southernliving.com/garden/trees/manchineel-poison-tree
• http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/plants/coastal/cerbera/cerbera.htm
• https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/19/mississippi-ricin-obama/9302053/
• https://www.csis.org/analysis/ricin-characterization-biological-threat