Pal·ma Chris·ti Bot. A plant (Ricinus communis) with ornamental peltate and palmately cleft foliage, growing as a woody perennial in the tropics, and cultivated as an herbaceous annual in temperate regions; -- called also castor-oil plant. [Sometimes corrupted into palmcrist.]
◄ ►
Pal·mic a. Chem. Of, pertaining to, or derived from, the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi) and other species of the family Euphorbiaceae; -- formerly used to designate an acid now called ricinoleic acid (d-12-hydroxyoleic acid, C18H34O3). [Obsoles.]
◄ ►
ric·in·o·le·ic ac·id n. Chem. An organic acid (C18H34O3) obtained from the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi) and other species of the family Euphorbiaceae; chemicaly it is d-12-hydroxyoleic acid (CH3(CH2)5.CH(OH).CH2.CH=CH.(CH2)7COOH). Formerly called palmic acid.
◄ ►
Cas·tor bean Bot. The bean or seed of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi.)
◄ ►
Cas·tor oil A mild cathartic oil, expressed or extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi. When fresh the oil is inodorous and insipid.
Castor-oil plant. Same as Palma Christi.
◄ ►
palma christi
n : large shrub of tropical Africa and Asia having large palmate
leaves and spiny capsules containing seeds that are the
source of castor oil and ricin; widely naturalized
throughout the tropics [syn: castor-oil plant, castor
bean plant, palma christ, Ricinus communis]