A highly toxic protein found in castor beans that can cause serious illness or death if ingested, inhaled, or injected.
Derived from 'ricinus,' the Latin name for the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis). The protein was isolated and named in the 1800s when chemistry advanced enough to study plant poisons.
Ricin is so deadly that a single grain weighing about 0.2 grams can kill an adult, yet castor oil (from the same plant) is safe because the processing removes the ricin—showing how one plant can contain both medicine and poison.
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