Effect of climatic factors on the oil content, physicochemical properties and fatty acids of castor oil

Castor plant (Ricinus communis L.) is one of the most important medicinal plants which are used in pharmaceutical, cosmetics and hygienic industries of many developed countries. The versatile application of castor oil in different industry and recently in food industry has led to much research being done on castor oil. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of climatic factors on oil content, physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of medicinal castor oil in Azarbaijan region to add on performance of this valuable medicinal plant. Oil extraction yield in the analysed samples were 35-51%. The results on other physicochemical properties were as follow refractive index (1.404-1.421), chlorophyll content (0.16-0.39 mg pheophytin/kg Oil), acid value (0.29-0.6 mg NaOH/g Oil), peroxide value (below 1), saponification value (167-178 mg KOH/g Oil) and iodine value (75-85 g I2/100 g Oil). In this research, fatty acids of extracted oils were determined by GC. Among determined fatty acids, ricinoleic acid (85.7-88.9%) had the highest level, followed by oleic acid (3.9-4.2%) and linoleic acid (2.2-4.1%) which was related to differences of region climatic factors. The results revealed that climatic factors can be effective on the oil content, physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of castor oil.