Effect of Ricinus communis L on Microorganisms: Advantages and Disadvantages

Abstract

Castor is an important industrial and medicinal plant, as raw material for thousands of compounds can be obtained from it. Castor contains a number of toxic compounds in different parts of the plant, ricin being the most potent. Highest concentration of inhibitors is found in seeds. These compounds show antimicrobial activity against different pathogenic bacteria. So, these toxic compounds can be used to prepare drugs to treat many diseases worldwide. Antimicrobial effect of castor was also seen against soil microbial community which in turn affects soil health and fertility. However, there are many physical, chemical and biological methods which help in degradation of castor inhibitors.

Actividad antifúngica in vitro de Ricinus communis y Cyperus rotundus sobre cepas de Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

“…In this context, the plant extracts from the noxious weeds coco-grass (Cyperus rotundus L.) and castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) inhibit the growth of fungi belonging to the genera Fusarium, Alternaria, Curvularia, and Colletotrichum (Hernández-Albíter et al 2007, Singh et al 2011, Luque et al 2014, Mudiyanselage et al 2019. As a result, these weed plants emerge valuable alternatives to chemical fungicides or even commercial bacterial-based products, given that plant extracts often exhibit a broad spectrum of antifungal activity due to their diverse array of phytochemicals, reducing the likelihood of fungal resistance (Ashwini and Srividya 2014, Kim et al 2014, Ruiz-Sánchez et al 2014, Landero-Valenzuela et al 2016, Rashmi et al 2019, Banaras et al 2020. However, the assessment of the effectiveness of these plants and bacterial-based products against the same phytopathogenic fungi has been limited.…”