Abstract
Castor beans, sometimes used in traditional therapies, contain ricin one of the most toxic substances known. It may cause an acute and potentially fatal gastroenteritis in addition to neurological and ophthalmological lesions. Poisoning may also lead to delayed visceral damages; however, the latter is quite rare. The toxicity is dose related and depends on the amount of castor beans ingested. There is no specific treatment and symptomatic management to reduce the load of the toxin needs to be initiated quickly and early when a case of poisoning is suspected so that serious complications will be avoided. Increasing the awareness of the population to the dangers of ricin would be a way to avoid the utilisation of castor seeds in traditional therapies. Here we are reporting a case of mild poisoning after ingestion of a single castor bean. The patient, who presented at Nizwa Hospital, Oman, fortunately recovered completely as the ingested dose was quite small.
Publication details
- DOI
- 10.18295/2075-0528.2699
- Journal
- Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 8(1), 83-87
- Publisher
- Sultan Qaboos University
- Open access
- Gold open access
- License
- CC BY-ND 4.0
Cite this article
APA 7
AL-Tamimi, F. A., & Hegazi, A. E. (2025). A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 8(1), 83-87. https://doi.org/10.18295/2075-0528.2699
MLA 9
AL-Tamimi, Faisal A., and Ahmad EM Hegazi. "A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning." Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, 2025, pp. 83-87. https://doi.org/10.18295/2075-0528.2699.
Chicago (author–date)
AL-Tamimi, Faisal A., and Ahmad EM Hegazi. 2025. "A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning." Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal 8 (1): 83-87. https://doi.org/10.18295/2075-0528.2699.
Harvard
AL-Tamimi, F. A. and Hegazi, A. E. (2025) 'A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning', Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 8(1), pp. 83-87. doi:10.18295/2075-0528.2699.
Vancouver
AL-Tamimi FA, Hegazi AE. A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal. 2025;8(1):83-87. doi:10.18295/2075-0528.2699
IEEE
F. A. AL-Tamimi, and A. E. Hegazi, "A Case of Castor Bean Poisoning," Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 83-87, 2025, doi: 10.18295/2075-0528.2699.