RicinAubrey Van Niekerk

John StensonSabrina Wolfe

Manufacture

0Made from the pulp of the castor bean

0Crushing the pulp creates oil and this oil is purified into pure ricin toxin

Toxicity

0Highly toxic0Works by inhibiting the

body’s ability to produce proteins, which can cause organ failure

Methods of Administration

0 Injected via needle0 Injected via pellet 0Added to water0Misted

Detection

0Mass spectrometry on the blood is performed to identify the poison

Symptoms

0 Symptoms usually appear 6-8 hours after administration, death follows within 48-76 hours

0 If inhaled: Respiratory distress/failure, cold symptoms, Pulmonary Edema, Low BP

0 If ingested: GI distress, diarrhea, vomiting, hallucinations, seizures, organ failure

0 Injection: massive organ failure, fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of conciousness

Cure

0No known antidote0Can identified but not

treated0Can only make the

victim comfortable

Wood Green Ricin Plot

0 London UK0 Use of ricin threatened0 Believed links to Al-Qaeda0 Metropolitan Police

arrested 6 suspects in Jan. 5, 2003

0 No ricin found but public panic

0 Only one conviction- Kamel Bourgass

Umbrella Murder

0 Bulgaria 19780 Georgi Markov0 At bus stop stranger bumped

into him with umbrella0 Died three days later0 Ricin was COD0 Identified that the umbrella

had injected a small metal pellet filled with ricin into his calf

0 Murderer was Francesco Gullino codenamed “Piccadilly

Sources

0http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp0http://

emedicine.medscape.com/article/830795-overview0http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ricin/index.html