What is Castor Oil?
Castor oil, a type of vegetable oil, is obtained from the seeds of the Ricinus communis plant, which is native to India. The oil is expressed from the seeds, then heated and refined for edible and commercial use [1, 2]. Comprising about 89-92% molecules of hydroxylated fatty acid, known as ricinoleic acid, castor oil is rich in this particular compound, which gives the oil numerous curative and therapeutic properties. Thus, due to its well-famed therapeutic version, the oil is preferred over others in medical applications worldwide [2].
What does Castor Oil do?
Its distinctive properties make it suitable for a broad range of applications. In cosmetics, it is used as an antibacterial, cleansing, emulsifying, and moisturising agent [2]. It is added to various skin-care products and cosmetics, including shampoos, soaps, and lipsticks [1].
Castor oil remains a well-used laxative and delivery route for medicines in medicine. It is added, for example, to paclitaxel and docetaxel, two prescription medicines used to treat cancer [3]. It has also been used as a treatment for various eye conditions. Castor oil applied daily to the eyelid for four weeks helped reduce eyelash matting in patients with symptoms such as dry eyes and blepharitis, where the eyelids become red, itchy and swollen [3].
Castor oil is also used to produce plastics, textile fibres, paints, printing inks, pigments and general-purpose solvents for the manufacturing industry. It is used as a hardener, a bacterial inhibitor, a food additive, a flavour additive, a film finish, and a feedstock [2].
Especially since it was also found to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties [4], which will reduce wrinkles and ultimately slow down human ageing. It’s also antimicrobial and has been used in folk medicine [5].
Benefits of Castor Oil
Castor oil is a by-product of the Ricinus communis plant’s seeds with numerous well-known applications, which contain 90% of ricinoleic acid, a monounsaturated fat, which is the main component of the oil [1, 6, 7].
Castor oil can benefit general skin health – its antioxidants can help eliminate free radicals that are the culprits to skin ageing and the formation of more fine lines and wrinkles [8]. Its antibacterial properties can help fight against skin breakouts caused by acne bacteria that clog up pores [8]; its anti-inflammatory properties can help reduce swelling of the skin that occurs in many skin pigmentation conditions and puffy eyes [8], and including castor oil products into your beauty routine can help shrink the size of swollen pimples or eye bags [8].
In some cases, castor oil has been used as an emollient (a natural moisturizer that softens and smooths the skin, giving it a youthful sheen and maintaining its suppleness to prevent wrinkles). It even prevents wrinkles by maintaining skin moisture. It’s also used as a lipstick and lip gloss ingredient to hydrate dry lips. It can be directly applied to the lips to hydrate them [8].
Castor oil might also be good for hair and skin: it’s been known to enhance growth and thicken eyelashes [4].
Castor oil may also be useful for eye health: It has been found to treat ocular surface disease, increase tear film lipid layer thickness, and improve ocular surface staining and symptoms [9].
Similarly, castor oil is used in traditional medicine to treat abdominal disorders, arthritis, backache, muscle aches, constipation and insomnia [10, 11].
The palmitoleic acid concentration in castor oil might have applications in the food and cosmetic sectors, as it has been reported that this compound is an antioxidant and an antibacterial agent [5].
What is Skin Cancer?
Skin cancer is a cancer that arises when there are mutations in the DNA of your skin cells that lead to skin cells growing out of control and forming a mass of cancer. Skin cancer in the fair-skinned populations of Earth is the most common type of cancer worldwide and it is the most frequent cancer diagnosed globally [12, 13, 14].
Causes of Skin Cancer
The primary cause of skin cancer is exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or artificial sources like tanning beds and sun lamps. UV rays can damage skin cells' DNA, leading to cancer cell growth and multiplication [12, 15].
Furthermore, if not UV radiation, then exposure to other environmental chemicals such as chimney soot or arsenic compounds, long-term irritation of the skin as in eczema, certain viral infections and an impaired immune status can also act as predisposing factors. Treatments such as radiotherapy, phototherapy, psoralen and long-wave ultraviolet radiation (PUVA) can also play a role in making people susceptible to skin cancer [13].
Specific types of skin cancer can be inherited, that is, caused by changes in your genes, such as in the case of certain familial genetic syndromes. Your chances of getting melanoma are also higher if one or more of your parents, siblings or children has been diagnosed with melanoma. This may be the result of similar exposures to the sun that all of you shared, everyone inheriting light skin tone, or because all of you inherited changes in specific genes from one or more of your parents [13].
Lastly, lifestyle factors such as stress, sleep, and exercise may also influence the risk of skin cancer, although the evidence for these factors is still limited.
Can Castor Oil Help With Skin Cancer?
We lack evidence to prove or disprove whether castor oil has benefits as a treatment for or prevention of skin cancer because none of the current scientific articles directly link castor oil with skin cancer. However, some properties can still be extracted to postulate that the use of castor oil has benefits on skin health, which in turn could lead to the prevention of skin cancer.
The oils extracted from castor seeds contain high antioxidants that can scavenge free radicals – molecules that speed up ageing and potentially create cancer cells. [8] These oils are also antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, meaning that they can help reduce swelling and puffiness and might ease sunburn pain. [8]
Moreover, it’s chock-full of healthy fatty acids needed for healthy skin [8]. Ninety per cent of castor oil consists of one particular fatty acid – monounsaturated ricinoleic acid – which gives castor oil its moisturising and conditioning qualities [1].
Although these properties might have a role in general skin health and might even play a part in skin cancer prevention, no data are showing clear causal, much less curative, links between castor oil and skin cancer. So, although it might be a good thing to use castor oil to keep your skin in good general health, this shouldn’t replace seeing a healthcare specialist about skin cancer prevention and treatment methods.
