Explainer: what is ricin?
By 
Jamie Durrani2024-10-03T08:30:00
A doctor in the UK is on trial for attempted murder with this extremely deadly poison
A UK doctor is standing trial for making and using the chemical weapon ricin. Thomas Kwan was charged with the attempted murder of his mother’s partner in January this year by administering the poisonous substance.
Ricin is one of the world’s most famous poisons, having featured in Agatha Christie novels, TV shows like Breaking Bad and real-life cold war assassination attempts. The compound is listed as a controlled substance under both the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
What is ricin?
Ricin is a protein produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant. It is a type of carbohydrate-binding protein known as a lectin. Lectins are found throughout nature and are produced by plants, animals, bacteria and viruses. Ricin was actually the first compound in this class ever to be discovered when it was isolated in 1888 by the Baltic–German microbiologist Peter Hermann Stillmark.