Israel
September 29, 2019

Agrim ltd. in Israel has isolated a natural mutation of castor bean which is without active ricin. This genetic mutation is patent protected in Israel.

Castor bean is grown mainly for oil production. The castor oil is an important industrial oil for about 100 different uses in the producing industry, such as grease, hard plastic, paint colors, anti-foaming and many others.  Every year around 1.5 million tons castor oil is produced world wide.

Ricin is the most toxic plant poison. 3-20 kernels can kill an adult person. Out of this reason ricin is declared terror poison and therefore in many countries growers prefer not to grow any more castor beans.  For example in the USA were grown about 40,000 Ha Castor beans in the 70ths of the previous century. Today it is zero.

Ricin is a protein built of two chains linked by a sulfur bridge. Only if both chains are linked ricin is toxic. The mutation of Agrim ltd produces only one of the two chains.

The lines with the mutation is already combined with the adaption to mechanical harvest. This enables to grow castor beans in a crop rotation without endangering the following crop by poising due to germinating fallout kernels.

Agrim ltd. is searching now for a marker gene for the mutation in order to ensure high level non- toxicity.

For information, contact Ariel Krolzig: +972 54 6384534, krolzig@zahav.net.il

Published: October 1, 2019