Ricinine is an alkaloid present in the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) that can be used as a biomarker for ricin poisoning. Serial ricinine levels are reported in the serum and urine of a patient suffering from intentional ricin intoxication. The patient was brought to the hospital 4 h after injection and oral intake of a castor bean extract, but died 38 h later, despite intensive medical ...

The most widely distributed substituted pyridine compounds in living systems are the pyridine nucleotides. The nicotinamide moiety (Fig. 1, I) of these compounds arises from the indole nucleus of tryptophan in animals, (1, 2) and Neurospora (3, 4), but not in higher plants (5-7) and certain bacteria (8). Pyridine compounds which might be used to study the biosynthesis of the pyridine nucleus ar...

A metabonomic approach based on ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS) was used to study the hepatotoxicity of ricinine in rats. Potential biomarkers of ricinine toxicity and toxicological mechanism were analyzed by serum metabonomic method. The significant differences in the metabolic profiling of the control and treated rats were clear by using the pr...

Ricinine (3-cyano-4-methoxy-N-methyl-2-pyridone) is a urinary biomarker that can be measured to confirm human exposure to castor bean products such as ricin. Because many consumer products contain castor oil, another castor bean product, ricinine may be detectable in the general population. The following study characterized urinary ricinine concentrations from 989 individuals who were presumed ...

Abrin and ricin are highly toxic and lethal proteins which have the potential to be used as bioterrorism agents.Labrine and ricinine, molecular biomarkers for abrin and ricin, serve as useful biomarkers in assessing exposure and contamination.In this study, we developed a method for the quantitation of L-abrine and ricinine spiked into four food types: ground beef, chicken breast, hot dogs, and...

The ricinine content of etiolated seedlings of Ricinus communis increased nearly 12-fold over a 4-day period. In plants quinolinic acid is an intermediate in the de novo pathway for the synthesis of pyridine nucleotides. The only known enzyme in the de novo pathway for pyridine nucleotide biosynthesis, quinolinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase, increased 6-fold in activity over a 4-day period w...

In Indian system of medicines, root of Ricinus communis Linn. is used to treat inflammation and liver disorders. In present study, the ME of root was prepared by soxhlet method. ME was fractionated into four fractions; explicitly, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and remaining aqueous fraction. The n-butanol fraction, having showed significant inhibition of inflammation, was subjected to f...

The pyridine moieties of the pyridine nucleotides, nicotinic acid mononucleotide, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, were shown to be incorporated into ricinine by Ricinus communis L. with an efficiency comparable to that of quinolinic acid, nicotinic acid, and nicotinamide, which had been established previously as being efficient precursors of this alka...

The pyridine moieties of the pyridine nucleotides, nicotinic acid mononucleotide, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, were shown to be incorporated into ricinine by Ricinus communis L. with an efficiency comparable to that of quinolinic acid, nicotinic acid, and nicotinamide, which had been established previously as being efficient precursors of this alka...