CASTOR SEED OIL
- Castor seed is the source of castor oil, which has a wide variety of uses.
- Castor seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 4000 BC. Herodotus and other Greek travelers have noted the use of castor seed oil for lightening and body anointments. The use of castor seed oil in India has been documented since 2000 BC for use in lamps and in local medicine as a laxative, purgative, and cathartic in Unani, Ayurvedic and other ethnomedical systems. Castor seed and urin have also been used in China for centuries, mainly prescribed in local medicine for internal use or use in dressings.
- The common name, Palm of Christ, derives from castor oil’s ability to heal wounds and cure ailments.
- The seeds, seed oil, leaves and the roots of eranda have great medicinal value. The plant is equally useful, both internally as well as externally. Externally, eranda is effectively used in the diseases of vata associated with pain and swellings. For this purpose, the seed oil massage or fomentation with its hot leaves relieves the symptoms in the diseases like arthritis, sciatica, rheumatism, gout, mastitis and skin diseases. The massage with eranda oil purifies the breast milk in mothers.
- Castor seed oil massages soothe dry and coarse skin.