The Terrorist’s Favorite Weed/ Castor Bean

Written by Thomas Ogren


The Terrorist’s Favorite Weed/ Castor Bean

Thomas Ogren

The Castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) with its large bold, highly colored leaves is native to tropical Africa. In cold climates it is an annual, growing quickly, setting many seeds, and dying off in winter. In mild winter areas it is a long-lived perennial, sometimes reaching small tree size. It has gone wild and naturalized in many places and is especially common in coastal areas. Each plant produces hundreds ofrepparttar bean-like seeds and these seeds can remain viable for more than a decade. Castor bean is a Euphorbia (Spurge) family member and like many Euphorbias it is poisonous, has highly caustic sap, and produces extremely allergenic pollen. Before World War Two castor bean was not common inrepparttar 113435 US, grown mostly as an unusual foliage plant in a few gardens. But duringrepparttar 113436 war there was a need for castor oil andrepparttar 113437 government encouraged farmers inrepparttar 113438 Midwest to start growing large acreage of it as an oil seed crop. The first year it was grown not much happened but byrepparttar 113439 end ofrepparttar 113440 second season huge numbers of people living nearrepparttar 113441 castor bean fields started getting hay fever and asthma. Castor bean pollen is an abundant and potent allergen. There is another more sinister use for castor bean. The mottled seeds of castor bean, which are aboutrepparttar 113442 size and shape of large pinto beans, contain two powerful poisons,repparttar 113443 alkaloid ricinin andrepparttar 113444 toxalbumin ricin. Ricin, a white protein powder is a remarkably deadly cytotoxin. The poison inrepparttar 113445 seeds is so strong that eating a single seed can kill a child. Animals, horses in particular, that eatrepparttar 113446 succulent leaves die from ricin poisoning. Ricin is even more toxic than strychnine and cyanides. Ricin also hasrepparttar 113447 ability to accumulate inrepparttar 113448 body until a lethal dose is reached. Symptoms of ricin poisoning are stomachache, headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, bloody diarrhea, cold sweat, sleepiness, disorientation, shortage of breath, seizures, and death.

Terrorists have long been enamored of castor bean and ricin. Modern day mad scientists can extract ricin from castor bean seeds. Just how poisonous is ricin? Ricin is one ofrepparttar 113449 most poisonous naturally occurring substances known to man. As little as one milligram of ricin can kill an adult.

Horticultural Therapy

Written by Thomas Leo Ogren


Horticultural Therapy

Thomas Ogren

The idea of using gardens and plants as “tools” for therapy is growing fast these days. Makes perfect sense, too. There is a great deal of evidence that working in gardens is wonderful for our mental health. The relation between our mental health and our physical health is a close one. If we feel good about ourselves, about our families, our work, our friends, often our bodies will feel stronger too. Just being in a beautiful garden can make many of us feel better. Doing small chores inrepparttar garden, deadheading roses, pulling weeds, planting some bulbs, fertilizing, all of these things haverepparttar 113434 ability to make us feel good. Inrepparttar 113435 Persian languagerepparttar 113436 words “garden” and “heaven” are one andrepparttar 113437 same. In our own lives so often we spend most of our time rushing here and rushing there. We spend way too much time stuck in front of computers, TV sets, stuck in rush hour traffic, doing things that may be necessary, but things that aren’t much fun, much less satisfying. But working inrepparttar 113438 garden, that’s different, especially for those of us who really do love to garden. I recently came on some research data that suggests thatrepparttar 113439 more tuned into gardening a person is,repparttar 113440 more nurturing, creative, and compassionate that person will be. Again, this makes sense too. Inrepparttar 113441 garden we are free to experiment. Inrepparttar 113442 garden what we do actually does make a difference, a huge difference. Unlike so many things,repparttar 113443 more effort we put into our gardens,repparttar 113444 better they are. What isrepparttar 113445 link between gardening and empathy for our fellow man? Could it be that gardening brings us closer to nature? That by getting in touch with Mother Nature, we are ourselves enriched? Probably so. But then too, there’s no doubt thatrepparttar 113446 type of people drawn to gardening inrepparttar 113447 first place, may already have in them an extra dose of creativity and compassion. I used to work in a prison for juveniles. The CYA it was called,repparttar 113448 California Youth Authority. I started from scratchrepparttar 113449 program there and overrepparttar 113450 yearsrepparttar 113451 program grew,repparttar 113452 gardens expanded, I learned new things and so did my wayward students. Most of my “boys” inrepparttar 113453 CYA were gang members fromrepparttar 113454 Los Angeles area. Typically they were “in” for armed robbery, muggings, murder. Most of them, although they ranged in age from fifteen to twenty-five, most could barely read, and none had done any gardening. I designed our gardens to be therapeutic. We built a big brick barbecue so we could cook things we grew. We grew fruit trees, hundreds of them, so we’d have fresh fruit to eat. We put up bird feeders so we could attract and see birds inrepparttar 113455 garden. We put up birdbaths, we made wind chimes, and we planted huge gardens of vegetables and flowers. In our gardens we grew things organically. I taught them to value frogs, toads, lizards, snakes as welcome additions torepparttar 113456 garden. We made huge piles of compost. Aboutrepparttar 113457 only form of punishment we used was, “turningrepparttar 113458 compost heap.” We always had a radio to play some music to listen to while we worked. Deep, profound changes happened to many of these hardened criminals while working inrepparttar 113459 garden. As they learned to hybridize roses they lost their desire to rob liquor stores. As they grew tomatoes big as your fist and watermelons big as beach balls, they became proud of their accomplishments. The more they learned about plants,repparttar 113460 less they were interested in crime. Many of these boys learned how to read, to do math, to write, and learned it all there inrepparttar 113461 gardens, inrepparttar 113462 greenhouses. I worked inrepparttar 113463 CYA for twelve years. People in authority sometimes claimed that I bribed my “wards” and that I must be doing something illegal. They couldn’t understand how it was that these hoodlums could learnrepparttar 113464 scientific names of hundreds of plants, that they actually learned to love to read, to love to garden. But I didn’t briberepparttar 113465 boys; I just set up a garden with a healing atmosphere and then let it work its wonders. The right garden is a magical place. Plants are not judgmental. You take good care of them and they thrive. Inrepparttar 113466 garden our minds are free to wander, to daydream, to relax. Good things happen in good gardens. Why talk about horticultural therapy in a book devoted largely to allergy avoidance? The answer is simple. Gardening of itself can be very therapeutic, however, ifrepparttar 113467 garden is filled with plants that cause allergies, well,repparttar 113468 gardening experience won’t be that good. It is no fun to be sneezing and even less fun to have attacks of skin rashes or asthma. By making our gardens allergy-free we can avoid these negatives. The physical work done in gardens is also good for us, burning calories, making our muscles stronger. Inrepparttar 113469 right gardenrepparttar 113470 air is cleaner, too, refreshing our lungs as we work. If it makes sense to have a therapeutic garden be allergy-free, it also makes sense that gardening is food forrepparttar 113471 soul, andrepparttar 113472 happier we feel about life, quite often,repparttar 113473 better will be our health.

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