Castor beans
The protein 'ricin' (
pronounced ) is a
toxin extracted from the
castor bean (''Ricinus communis'').
Ricin has an average
lethal dose in humans of
0.2 milligrams (1/5,000th of a gram), though some sources give higher figures.
[http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp]
Toxicity
Ricin structure. The 'A' chain is shown in blue and the 'B' chain in orange.
Ricin is poisonous if
inhaled,
injected, or
ingested, acting as a toxin by the inhibition of
protein synthesis. While there is no known
antidote, the US military has developed a vaccine.
[1] Symptomatic and supportive treatment is available. Long term
organ damage is likely in survivors. Ricin causes severe
diarrhea and victims can die of
shock. (See
abrin).
Deaths caused by ingestion of seeds are rare.
[2] Eight beans are considered toxic for an adult.
[3] A solution of
saline and
glucose has been used to treat ricin overdose.
[4] The case experience is not as negative as popular perception would indicate.
[5]
Structure
Ricin consists of two distinct
protein chains (almost 30
kDa each) that are linked to each other by a
disulfide bond:
★ 'Ricin A' is an N-
glycoside hydrolase that specifically removes an adenine base from ribosomal RNA, resulting in an inhibition of protein synthesis.
★ 'Ricin B' is a
lectin that binds galactosyl residues and is important in assisting ricin A's entry into a cell by binding with a cell surface component.
Many plants such as
barley have the A chain but not the B chain. Since people do not get sick from eating large amounts of such products, ricin A is of extremely low toxicity as long as the B chain is not present.
Manufacture
Ricin is easily
purified from castor-oil manufacturing
waste. The
seed-
pulp left over from pressing for castor oil contains on average about 5% by weight of ricin. Since 0.2 mg of purified Ricin constitutes a fatal dose, this is a considerable amount of ricin.
In the
United States, a person caught manufacturing or possessing ricin may be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
Potential medicinal use
Ricins may have therapeutic use in the treatment of
cancer. Ricin could be linked to a
monoclonal antibody to target malignant cells recognized by the antibody. Genetic modification of ricin is believed to be possible to lessen its toxicity to humans, but not to the cancer cells. A promising approach is also to use the non-toxic B subunit as a vehicle for delivering
antigens into cells thus greatly increasing their
immunogenicity. Use of ricin as an
adjuvant has potential implications for developing mucosal
vaccines.
Therapeutically, ricin is used in 'magic bullets' to specifically target and destroy cancer cells.
[6]
Use as a chemical/biological warfare agent
The
United States investigated ricin for its military potential during the
First World War. At that time it was being considered for use either as a toxic dust or as a coating for bullets and shrapnel. The dust cloud concept could not be adequately developed, and the coated bullet/shrapnel concept would violate the
Hague Convention of 1899. The War ended before it was weaponized.
During the
Second World War the United States and
Canada undertook studying ricin in
cluster bombs. Though there were plans for mass production and several field trials with different bomblet concepts, the end conclusion was that it was no more economical than using
phosgene. This conclusion was based on comparison of the final weapons rather than ricin's toxicity (
LD50 <30 mg.min.m
–3). Ricin was given the military symbol W.
The best-known documented use of ricin as an agent of
biological warfare was by the
Soviet Union's
KGB during the
Cold War. In
1978, the
Bulgarian dissident
Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police who surreptitiously 'shot' him on a
London street with a modified umbrella using compressed gas to fire a tiny pellet contaminated with ricin into his leg. He died in a hospital a few days later; the body of Georgi Markov was passed to a special poison branch of the British MOD who discovered the pellet during an
autopsy. The main suspect was the Bulgarian secret police; this was because Georgi Markov had defected from Bulgaria several years prior to the incident and was wanted for writing many controversial books on the communist government at the time, however, it was believed at the time that Bulgaria would not have been able to produce the poison, and it was also believed that the KGB had supplied it. The KGB denied any involvement although high-profile KGB defectors
Oleg Kalugin and
Oleg Gordievsky have since confirmed the KGB's involvement. Earlier, Soviet dissident
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also suffered (but survived) ricin-like symptoms after a 1971 encounter with KGB agents.
[7]
Despite ricin's extreme
toxicity and utility as an agent of chemical/biological warfare, it is extremely difficult to limit the production of the toxin. Under both the
1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the
1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, ricin is listed as a
schedule 1 controlled substance. Despite this, more than 1 million metric tonnes of castor beans are processed each year, and approximately 5% of the total is rendered into a waste containing high concentrations of ricin toxin.
[http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicagents/ricin/ricin.html]
In August of
2002,
US officials asserted that the Islamic militant group
Ansar al-Islam tested ricin, along with other
chemical and
biological agents, in northern
Iraq.
To put ricin used as
weapon into perspective, it is worth noting that as a
biological weapon or
chemical weapon, ricin may be considered as not very powerful, if only in comparison with other poisons such as
botulinum or
anthrax. Hence, a military willing to use biological weapons ''and'' having advanced resources would rather use either of the latter instead. Ricin is easy to produce, but is not as practical nor likely to cause as high casualties as other agents. Ricin denatures (ie, the protein changes structure and becomes less dangerous) much more readily than anthrax spores, which may remain lethal for decades. (Jan van Aken, an expert on biological weapons explained in an interview with the German magazine
Der Spiegel that he judges it rather reassuring that
Al Qaeda experimented with ricin as it suggests their inability to produce botulin or anthrax.)
Pure ricin could be dispersed through the air, but
ozone, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants would oxidize it within a few hours, rendering it harmless. Since it acts as an
enzyme, catalyzing destruction of
ribosomes, even a single oxidation is likely to render the ricin molecule harmless. Presumably it could be sealed inside some sort of dust particle that would dissolve in water, but this would be difficult.
The major reason it is dangerous is that there is no specific antidote, and that it is very easy to obtain (the castor bean plant is a common ornamental, and can be grown at home without any special care). Ricin is actually several
orders of magnitude less toxic than
botulinum or
tetanus toxin, but those are more difficult to obtain.
Patented extraction process
The process for creating ricin is well-known, and for example described in a
patent.
[8] The described extraction method is very similar to the preparation of
soy protein isolates.
The patent was removed from the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database sometime in 2004, but is still available online through international patent databases.
[Harry L. Craig, O.H. Alderks, Alsoph H. Corwin, Sally H. Dieke, and Charlotte Karel, US Patent 3,060,165, "Preparation of Toxic Ricin", granted October 23, 1962] Modern theories of protein chemistry cast doubt on the effectiveness of the methods disclosed in the patent.
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/nsn/nsn-040723.htm]
Detected ricin incidents
Assassination of Bulgarian Dissident Georgi Markov, London 1978
On September 7, 1978 the Bulgarian dissident
Georgi Markov was shot in the leg in public on Waterloo Bridge in the middle of London by a man using a weapon built into an umbrella. The weapon embedded a small pellet in Markov's leg which contained ricin. Markov died three days later.
Related arrests in Britain in 2003
Main articles: Wood Green ricin plot
On
5 January,
2003 the
Metropolitan Police raided a flat in north
London and arrested six Algerian men whom they claimed were manufacturing ricin as part of a plot for a poison attack on the
London Underground. No ricin was recovered as a result of this raid.
In South Carolina
In 2003, a package and letter sealed in a ''ricin-contaminated'' envelope was intercepted in
Greenville, South Carolina, at a
United States Postal Service processing center.
[9]
In Washington, D.C. in 2003
Ricin was detected in the mail at the
White House in
Washington, D.C. in November of 2003. The letter containing it was intercepted at a mail handling facility off the grounds of the White House, and it never reached its intended destination. The letter contained a fine powdery substance that later tested positive for ricin. Investigators said it was low potency and was not considered a health risk. This information was not made public until
February 3,
2004, when preliminary tests showed the presence of ricin in an office mailroom of U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist's office. There were no signs that anyone who was near the contaminated area developed any medical problems. Several Senate office buildings were closed as a precaution.
In Richmond, VA
In January 2006, ricin was found in a home in the suburbs of Richmond, VA. It was in the form of mashed castor beans. Although the suspect,
Chetanand Sewraz, was allegedly isolating the toxin to kill his estranged wife, and not for some form of bioterrorism, it nonetheless highlighted the ease with which ricin toxin can be made.
[http://wtvr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4457615][http://wtvr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4457626]
In Austin, Texas
On
23 February 2006, a student in the Moore-Hill dormitory at the
University of Texas at Austin found a strange powder in a roll of quarters she was using to do laundry. The University Environmental Health and Safety department immediately sanitized the affected rooms. Lab results (returned the following Friday) indicated ricin. The source of the powder remains unknown, with both the university and
Joint Terrorism Task Force investigating. The student and her roommate were being treated for potential exposure to the poison, although neither has exhibited symptoms. After cleansing and reinspection of the affected rooms (completed at 2:30am), the dorm reopened.
[10][11] News reports on
25 February report that further testing has indicated that the substance found is not, in fact, ricin.
[12] The identity of the powder has yet to be determined.
Cultural references
★ (1929) Ricin was the poison used in the
Agatha Christie "
Tommy and Tuppence"
whodunnit, ''
The House of Lurking Death'' in a
1929 collection of short stories called
Partners in Crime.
★ (1962) Ricin was used as the poison of choice of the murderer in the comedy film ''
Kill or Cure''.
★ (1979) A killer used ricin to murder
Travis McGee's girlfriend in ''
The Green Ripper''
★ (1992) The
Penn and Teller book ''
How To Play With Your Food'' (ISBN 0-679-74311-1) includes a "gimmicks envelope" of small objects related to the tricks inside the book. One of these is a sticker reading "Contains all-natural ricin," intended to be placed on food as a joke. The book explains that ricin is a poison.
★ (c. 1993) In
Walker, Texas Ranger, CD Parker is killed by Ricin poisoning. His death was originally covered up by his murderers as a heart attack (they had a vendetta against Walker and the rangers that put them away, including CD) until the rangers realized something was going on and an autopsy was performed.
★ (1999) Ricin was the poison used in ''
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham'' by
M.C. Beaton.
★ (2001) Ricin appears in Season 2 Episode 7
Caged .
[CSI Series 2 Episode 7]
★ (c. 2003) The Umbrella-gun pellet assassination incident was featured in
Mythbusters.
★ (2004) Ricin was one of the poisons used to exact terrorism in the book, "
3rd Degree" by
James Patterson
★ (2004) It is mentioned in the song 'Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin' by the
British duo, the
Amateur Transplants
★ (2006) In Hour 1 of '', terrorists plan to release ricin into
Los Angeles Harbor.
★ (2007) In Episode 15 of Season 2 in ''
The Unit'', Ricin is used in a bomb inside the
United Nations building.
★ (2007) Ricin-laced
hot chocolate was the weapon used to kill a private school history professor in
J. D. Robb's novel, "
Innocent in Death".
★ (2007) Ricin is mentioned as being dispersed in Dirty Bombs across LA in the alternate-reality game "
Year Zero," based on the new
Nine Inch Nails album of the same name.
[Hollywood In Memoriam]
★ (2007) In the episode (Season 3 episode 21) of , one murder was committed when a man was shot in the leg with a pellet laced with ricin shot from an air gun.
★ (2007) Ricin poisoning plays a role in the
Law & Order show 'Fallout,' Season 17, episode 19.
★ In the song "Master Thesis" by rap artist
Canibus, he states, "Words concocted by the lyrical locksmith, as deadly as 10 droplets of Ricin toxin."
Song on YouTube
See also
★
2001 anthrax attacks
Notes and references
1. http://www.dcmilitary.com/dcmilitary_archives/stories/090105/36813-1.shtml
2. Ingestion of castor oil plant seeds, Aplin PJ, Eliseo T, , , Med. J. Aust., 1997
3. Castor bean poisoning, Wedin GP, Neal JS, Everson GW, Krenzelok EP, , , The American journal of emergency medicine, 1986
4. Acute voluntary intoxication by ricin, Kopferschmitt J, Flesch F, Lugnier A, Sauder P, Jaeger A, Mantz JM, , , Human toxicology, 1983
5. Castor bean toxicity re-examined: a new perspective, Rauber A, Heard J, , , Veterinary and human toxicology, 1985
6. Ricin. Mechanisms of cytotoxicity, Lord MJ, Jolliffe NA, Marsden CJ, ''et al'', , , Toxicological reviews, 2003
7. D.M. Thomas, ''Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life,'' 368-378
8. "Preparation of Toxic Ricin", , assigned to the U.S. Secretary of the Army, inventors: Harry L. Craig, O.H. Alderks, Alsoph H. Corwin, Sally H. Dieke, and Charlotte Karel (granted October 23, 1962)
9. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5246a5.htm
10. "Ricin discovered in dormitory", Austin-American Statesman, 25 February 2006
11. "Powdered substance reported by student in Moore-Hill Dormitory", Official UT Austin Press Release, 24 February 2006
12. "Tests: No ricin in UT student from Pearland", ''Houston Chronicle'', 25 February 2006
External links
★
ricin information at
Department of Health (United Kingdom)
★
ricin information at
Cornell University
★
Castor bean information at
Purdue University
★
Medical research on ricin at
BBC
★
Chemical Review at
United States Army
★
Ricin - Emergency Preparations at
CDC
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