Tropical Plant Research

Miguel Ramos-Leal*, Mabel Villanueva- Domínguez, Keily Montero-Alvarez, Sheila García, Eduardo Canales-López and Meyling Rodríguez

Centro de Investigaciones en Plantas Proteicas y Productos Bionaturales (CIPB). Ave 5ta y 246, Complejo Barlovento, Playa, La Habana, Cuba

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/tpr.2023.v10.i3.010

Abstract:
The castor plant (Ricinius communis), belongs to Euphorbiaceae family, whose fruits produce castor oil, but as a by-product produce ricin, a potent toxic protein, which makes handling dangerous, in addition to being considered as a biological warfare agent.The development of simple methods that detect, in a fast way, the presence of ricin toxin (RT), allows to incorporate the detoxified castor bean cakes as a nutritional supplement of animal feed. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was assayed for detecting the presence of ricin in samples of residual cakes detoxified, treated by autoclave and chemical treatment using Ca(OH)₂. Results confirmed the efficiency of chemical treatment, stated by biochemical patterns of proteins using this SDS-PAGE method.