Plant, crop

Ricinus communis L.

Castor bean

A fast-growing non-food oil plant that spontaneously colonises mine tailings. It does not accumulate metals in shoots: it serves to stabilise and to produce industrial oil; in pots it also took up DDT residues.

Dvellakat, CC BY-SA 4.0

How it works

Mechanisms: phytostabilisationphytoextraction

Contaminants

Contaminant	Evidence	What was shown
Lead	field	Wild plants on Mexican mine tailings rich in Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb and Cd: by shoot concentrations and translocation factors castor bean is not an accumulator; it suits stabilising the residues, and seeds hold 41 to 64% oil (Ruiz Olivares et al. 2013). Ruiz Olivares et al., Potential of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) for phytoremediation of mine tailings and oil production, J. Environ. Manage. 114:316, 2013
DDT and breakdown products	greenhouse	Pot trial with 23 genotypes on soil co-contaminated with DDT and cadmium: mean concentrations of DDT and derivatives of 0.37 (leaf), 0.43 (stem) and 70.51 mg/kg (root); total uptake from 83.1 to 267.8 µg per pot (Huang et al. 2011). Huang et al., The phytoremediation potential of bioenergy crop Ricinus communis for DDTs and cadmium co-contaminated soil, Bioresour. Technol. 102:11034, 2011
Cadmium	greenhouse	In the same pot trial: on average 1.22 (leaf), 2.27 (stem) and 37.63 mg/kg (root) Cd; uptake from 66.0 to 155.1 µg per pot (Huang et al. 2011). Huang et al., Bioresour. Technol. 102:11034, 2011

Contaminant

Evidence

What was shown

Lead

field

Wild plants on Mexican mine tailings rich in Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb and Cd: by shoot concentrations and translocation factors castor bean is not an accumulator; it suits stabilising the residues, and seeds hold 41 to 64% oil (Ruiz Olivares et al. 2013).

Ruiz Olivares et al., Potential of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) for phytoremediation of mine tailings and oil production, J. Environ. Manage. 114:316, 2013

DDT and breakdown products

greenhouse

Pot trial with 23 genotypes on soil co-contaminated with DDT and cadmium: mean concentrations of DDT and derivatives of 0.37 (leaf), 0.43 (stem) and 70.51 mg/kg (root); total uptake from 83.1 to 267.8 µg per pot (Huang et al. 2011).

Huang et al., The phytoremediation potential of bioenergy crop Ricinus communis for DDTs and cadmium co-contaminated soil, Bioresour. Technol. 102:11034, 2011

Cadmium

greenhouse

In the same pot trial: on average 1.22 (leaf), 2.27 (stem) and 37.63 mg/kg (root) Cd; uptake from 66.0 to 155.1 µg per pot (Huang et al. 2011).

Huang et al., Bioresour. Technol. 102:11034, 2011

Limits

Contaminants stay almost entirely in the roots: real extraction is minimal. Seeds contain ricin and are highly toxic. Frost-sensitive. Oil content falls as root metal concentrations rise (Ruiz Olivares et al. 2013).