Your Guide to Castor Oil

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Castor Oil has a long history of use and popularity. I asked my colleague Jocey Rodriguez, an acupuncturist and herbalist in North Carolina who has a lot of experience with castor oil to share with us about its use and safety. Please use this information for educational purposes and do not take this as medical advice. Please consult with your medical team before trying something new and on any of your medical conditions.

What is Castor Oil?

Castor oil is the oil that is extracted from the bean or seed of the castor plant, also known as Ricinus Communis. The 2 most common types of Castor Oil are Traditional Organic Cold-Pressed Castor Oil and Jamaican Black Castor Oil. The biggest difference between the two is that Jamaican Black Castor Oil is extracted from roasted castor oil beans. This makes the oil more alkaline and better suited for applications such as hair growth and scalp treatments. Organic Cold-Pressed Castor Oil, as the name implies, is extracted by pressing the oil out of the bean without the application of heat. This is the oil in its most pure form and the most readily available. 

How do you choose what type to use? When purchasing Castor Oil, regardless of whether it is Black or Traditional, the most important thing to check is whether or not it is organic and what the extraction method was. You want to choose cold pressed, as the alternative is using Hexane as a solvent, which can be toxic. Great quality castor oil is typically packaged in dark amber glass bottles. Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into the castor oil over time, and should therefore be avoided when possible. 

The Benefits of Castor Oil

Applied over the liver area (right side of upper abdomen): This assists the liver in its detox function. It can be useful for metabolizing excess hormones such as after the use of birth control, IUI or IVF drugs, or in conditions of excess estrogen (breast tenderness, ovarian cysts, fibroids, endometriosis, etc). 

Applied over the lower abdomen: This method encourages more blood flow into the intestines and reproductive organs. In addition, it can also help reduce inflammation in those areas. This can be helpful for constipation (without the need of ingesting the oil). It may also be helpful in assisting the body heal from various pathological accumulations such as ovarian cysts, fibroids, hydrosalpinx, fallopian tube blockage, polyps, endometriosis and adenomyosis. It may be useful in improving egg quality and uterine lining quality. It can also be very helpful is preventing menstrual cramps and reducing their intensity. 

Applied over the lower back: This can ease and prevent lower back pain associated to menstruation or just generalized lower back soreness.

Applied on aching joints: This brings blood flow to the joints which can help relieve stiffness and pain.

Applied as a spot treatment on the skin: For healing scars, cystic acne and hyperpigmentation. It can also be applied to ingrown hairs to accelerate healing. 

Applied on scalp/hair: To promote the growth of head hair and eyebrows. It can also help soothe certain scalp conditions. 

How To Use Castor Oil Safely?

The science on how exactly castor oil works is not clearly understood. Studies have shown that the topical use of castor oil does have an impact on various immune cells and prostaglandins (hormone-like substances found in the body that play a role in regulating inflammation, muscle contraction, vasodilation and more) and has been shown to be effective in reducing certain types of pain. (Kennedy and Keaton 2012). Disclaimer, please do not do anything your doctor does not recommend. This blog post is for educational purposes only.

CASTOR OIL PACKS Create a “pack” by taking a piece of cloth (most often flannel, but can be an old rag or t-shirt; natural fibers work best) saturating it in the oil and applying it over the desired area. Then a barrier cloth can be placed on top to prevent staining nearby fabrics. The saturated pack can be reused multiple times as long as it seems to still be giving off oil. It can be resaturated if necessary. The pack can be stored inside of an air tight container such as a mason jar or zip top bag and be reused multiple times. 

APPLY TOPICALLY Using your hands on the desired area. Use a small amount to begin with.

With either method, a hot water bottle or heating pad can be added to aid in the absorption of the oil through the skin. Another option is to keep the area covered and wear the castor oil pack for multiple hours, or overnight, utilizing body heat to facilitate absorption.

A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY, START SLOW It is important to start castor oil use gently and slowly build up on the time the oil is on the skin. For example, if castor oil with a heating pad is applied over the lower abdomen, it is best to keep the session to 10-15 minutes and then wipe the area clean. After 24-48 hours, if no ill effects are observed, castor oil and heating pad can be reapplied for a slightly longer session the next day. Each session following can be prolonged by 5 minutes, up to 60 minutes, but only if well tolerated.

Photo by Eva Bronzini

Because of castor oil’s ability to promote circulation and affect muscle contractility, it may promote a little too much movement in the bowels that isn’t necessarily felt until several hours later. For this reason, it is recommended to start slow and then build up. Leaving the castor oil with heat on for too long, when you are first venturing into its use, can cause nausea and diarrhea up to 24 hours later. 

Putting it in the belly button is a technique founded in Ayurveda. The belief is that it gets absorbed by the Pechoti gland which is an area behind the naval that is rich in blood vessels. It is considered a center point for a lot of nerve connections. Applying castor oil here allows it to be absorbed more systemically. In Chinese Medicine this is called acupuncture point, Ren 8, Shenque or spirit gateway, that is never needled but it is common to apply moxibustion treatment to this area.

Ingesting castor oil was once very popular among Americans one to two generations ago, for relieving constipation. It can increase muscle contractility due to its affects on prostaglandins. This has similar effects to applying castor oil packs to the abdomen as mentioned above. It is for the same principle that it is applied for labor induction. Sometimes called “The Midwife's Brew” or “Midwife’s Cocktail” which is castor oil, almond butter, lemon verbena tea and apricot juice (some versions involve champagne). The idea is that the almond butter slows down the effects of the castor oil, the tea helps to relax you and the apricot is just for flavor. Some midwives swear by this method to induce labor or promote progress of a stalled labor. Others have just seen it give their patients diarrhea and do nothing to promote labor. Jocey says “I see it work better when the person is already in active labor, then it can move things along; but not necessarily a cold induction per se.”

Jocey cautions that those who want to use castor oil should “always start slow. More is not better in this case. I have had the first hand experience of falling asleep with the heating pad on while I was wearing a castor oil pack. I had absolutely zero menstrual cramps when I woke up, but I could not leave the bathroom and I was insanely nauseous. Now I can wear a pack overnight (without heat) and I feel good. I recently just did it every night for a full cycle and had one of the best periods ever. You gotta work up to it though. It was many years between that first experience and this past cycle.” She also makes sure to mention that using castor oil packs “over the abdomen during heavy flow days can cause even more bleeding” so Jocey advises to avoid that. “However, using it on the Liver during menstruation can be really helpful for the metabolism of excess estrogen that leads to heavy bleeding in the first place.”

Though there is a lot of anecdotal information about using castor oil to promote eyelash growth, this can also have detrimental effects if you are using too much, getting it into your eye or using the wrong type of castor oil. In this case we do not recommend using it on or near your eyes. Please consult with your eye doctor about your eye and eyelash health.

Written by Jocey Rodriguez and edited by Dr. Emily Siy.

Jocey Rodriguez is a licensed acupuncturist in Davidson, NC. She offers a variety of treatments for supporting the womb continuum.

You might also be interested in reading: Preparing for Pregnancy, Pelvic Steaming Awareness, Chinese Medicine for PCOS

Sources

Kennedy and Keaton (2012) Evidence for the Topical Application of Castor Oil International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine. March 13, 2012 Vol 5