Abstract
The toxin ricin has long been understood to have potential for criminal activity and there has been concern that it might be used as a mass-scale weapon on a military basis for at least two decades. Currently, the focus has extended to encompass terrorist activities using ricin to disrupt every day activities on a smaller scale. Whichever scenario is considered, there are features in common which need to be understood; these include the knowledge of the toxicity from ricin poisoning by the likely routes, methods for the detection of ricin in relevant materials and approaches to making an early diagnosis of ricin poisoning, in order to take therapeutic steps to mitigate the toxicity. This article will review the current situation regarding each of these stages in our collective understanding of ricin and how to defend against its use by an aggressor.
Highlights
The protein toxin, ricin, is effectively a bi-product of the castor oil extraction process and at least100 million metric tonnes of castor beans are grown and processed every year with the purpose of preparing castor oil
A highly toxic preparation may fairly be produced from castor bean seeds and recipes have been circulated on the internet [1,2,3,4] and in manuals that would assist the would-be terrorist
Using a Liu-Lee aerosol generator [8], which produces a tight mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) aerosol particle of just below 1 μm, Porton Wistar rats, were exposed to aerosols generated from solutions of two different preparations of pure ricin
Summary
The protein toxin, ricin, is effectively a bi-product of the castor oil extraction process and at least. The terrorist “cookbooks” have been examined by Pita and Domingo [5] and, in the case of ricin, deemed incapable of achieving a good product for causing a large number of casualties by any exposure route, mainly because of the low content of toxin of the final extracts. It is a large step from preparing a poisonous. Attempts currently underway that inform the diagnosis of ricin poisoning will be examined
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
