Castor and Lesquerella Oils: Production, Composition and Uses

$210.00

Grace Chen (Editor)
Crop Improvement and Utilization, Albany, California, USA

Series: Biochemistry Research Trends
BISAC: SCI007000

Castor oil was used as a medicine dating back to ancient Egyptian times. During the past centuries, castor oil has been employed in numerous modern applications. Castor oil contains an uncommon hydroxy fatty acid (HFA) at extremely high concentrations (90%). The hydroxy group imparts unique chemical and physical properties that make castor oil a vital raw material for manufacturing an increasing number of industrial products, such as high lubricity, long life lubricants and greases, a variety of polymers traditionally made by petroleum-based products for various coatings, elastomers and plastics, and an array of castor oil derivatives utilized in the cosmetic industry.

Because of the high oil concentration in castor seeds (50% of dry seed weight), castor is also cultivated as a feedstock for biodiesel production. Due to the toxin ricin found in castor seeds, the US Department of Agriculture is developing a safe source of HFA, which is known as lesquerella. This book presents a wide range of research results on castor oil production and applications. State-of-the-art technologies have been employed to depicting molecular species and pathways involved in the bio-synthesis of castor and lesquerella oils. Novel applications of castor oil has been developed such as biodegradable nanocomposites to be used as superior wound dressing materials and new polymers for sustainable polyurethane foams. Up-to-date information on global castor crop production, oil processing and utilization has been extensively reviewed. (Imprint: Nova)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. The Composition of Acylglycerols in Castor Oil and Their Biosynthetic Pathway (pp. 1-18)
Jiann-Tsyh Lin

Chapter 2. Quantification of the Molecular Species of Acylglycerols Containing Hydroxy Fatty Acids in Lesquerella Oil Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (pp. 19-34)
Jiann-Tsyh Lin and Grace Q. Chen

Chapter 3. Castor Oil/ZnO Bionanocomposites for Wound Dressing Applications (pp. 35-74)
Ana M. Díez-Pascual

Chapter 4. Green Polyurethane Foams and Composites Derived from Castor Oil and Molasses (pp. 75-100)
Hyoe Hatakeyama and Tatsuko Hatakeyama

Chapter 5. Oxidation Stability of Castor (Ricinus communis L) Oil Extracted by the Soxhlet Method and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide during Accelarated Storage (pp. 101-122)
Jibrin Mohammed Danlami, Muhammad Abbas Ahmad Zaini and Agus Arsad

Chapter 6. Castor Oil: Properties, Uses, and Commercial Scale Processing Practices (pp. 123-160)
Vinay R. Patel

Chapter 7. Castor Oil Production and Applications (pp. 161-196)
Sixberth Mlowe, Siphamandla C. Masikane, Joseph W. Kyobe, Egid B. Mubofu and Neerish Revaprasadu

Editor Contact Information (pp. 197-198)

Index (pp. 199)

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