Ricin is one of the most powerful naturally occurring poisons and has no known vaccine or antidote. It is extracted from the bean-like seeds of the castor plant, Ricinus communis. One million tons of the beans are processed around the world each year to make castor oil, which is used as a laxative and in automotive brake fluid.
The poison comes from the exterior of the bean, not the bean itself.
Ricin kills cells by preventing them from making proteins. A small dose can be fatal if swallowed, injected or inhaled. Ingesting ricin causes fever, stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting and eventually death. Inhalation often results in death from respiratory failure in 36 to 72 hours. Injected ricin causes death from multiple organ failure. Ricin is not easily absorbed through the skin, and experts say it is not an efficient way of killing large numbers of people. It’s estimated that 4 tons of ricin dispersed by aerosol would be needed to kill half of the people within an area of about 40 square miles, compared with only about 2 pounds of anthrax.
Not a very good WMD.
But it can be effective in targeting individuals. Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was killed in London in 1978 when a pinhead-sized pellet laced with ricin was injected into his thigh - reportedly by a rigged umbrella.
Killed by Bulgarian agents with the help of the KGB.
United Nations weapons inspectors who left Iraq in 1998 listed ricin among the poisons they believed Saddam Hussein had produced. U.S. troops also found traces of the substance at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites in Afghanistan.
Instructions for making ricin are available on the web. |