Cultivation of Castor
Castor plant is a tropical plant that
belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family and is grown for its non-edible oilseed. In
scientific terms, this plant is also termed as Ricinus communis. This plant has
purple colored stalks and large blue-green colored leaves of palmate shape. The
oil obtained from the seeds of this plant is a very useful raw material in many
industries like soap, surface coatings, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, perfumes,
greases and lubricants etc. Also the oil is used in a large number of
medicines. That is why the seeds and oil of this plant make very important and
valuable commodities that are traded in the market.
The history of castor plant is not very clear. It
is said that this plant originated in the tropical belt of India and Africa.
The Sanskrit language gave the ancient name of castor i.e. ‘Eranda’. It was
also called by various other names in different languages.
Herodotus, the father of history,
stated that the Egyptians used a type of oil to burn their lamps and for other
purposes, which was made by the seeds of Ricinus in the fourth century BC. He
named it Kiki and till now castor is cultivated in Greece by the same name.
Theophrastus and Dioscorides, who stated that the oil of the plant is not worth
eating but is very good if applied externally as a medicine, gave the detailed
description of the plant at around 1st century. They also stated the process of
extracting oil from the seeds of the plant. This plant was cultivated till
fifteenth century but due to the negative impacts that it has, it slowly
started becoming unpopular and by the eighteenth century, its production
practically ceased in Europe and the countries started fulfilling their
requirements by importing the oil from Jamaica. This is the period in which its
name changed to castor.
The dark side of this plant oil was
observed in the fascist Italy when under the leadership of Mussolini, castor
oil was used to give punishments to the people who opposed the established
fascist government. They were forced to consume this oil that in turn lead them
to death.
Castor is basically a tropical crop and it can
survive in arid conditions. It is an annual crop and is grown by sowing the
seeds in a hot weather. Castor can survive on various types of soils but it
requires an appropriate and consistent rainfall.
In India, it is grown as a khariff crop
and is planted generally during the months of July and August. The crop has a
duration period of 4 to 5 months and is generally harvested in the months of
December and January. However the sowing and harvesting periods within the
country differ according to the different regions where the crop is grown.
Also, the region only decides that whether the crop is to be grown as a sole
crop or a mixed crop. It starts to come to the market from October and comes
till April.
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