What is Ricin

What is ricin is the question of the day. Last night I was watching ER and something that hasn't been talked about in a while came up; chemical weapons, specifically Ricin. What is it? Ricin is a biological weapon that is made from castor beans. Ricin was found in a senate mail room in 2004, no one was ill affected. It only takes 1 milligram of ricin to be ingested to cause death, and only 500 micro grams of ricin if injected. Ricin can be delivered as a powder, mist or pill. It is present in the mash of castor beans when producing the oil. Ricin is a ribosome inactivating protein, which means it destroys the ribosomes in cells that carry out protein synthesis. Ricin has actually been used in tests to possibly treat cancer, as it can be targeted to kill the cancer cells.