Excerpt from The Tree of Life: Liver, Gallbladder, Fluke, Parasite, & Colon Cleanse by Gabriel Cousens, MD.

You may be familiar with the use of castor oil for constipation, however, the healing benefits of castor oil reach into far more categories.  Over the centuries, castor oil has received a sterling reputation because of its rapid haling benefits on so many different types of disorders.

The famous Edgar Cayce, called the “sleeping prophet,” popularized the use of castor oil in the 1940’s and ‘50’s, especially in the form of castor oil packs, which resulted in amazing health recoveries for many people.  The most frequently recommended use of castor oil by Cayce was as castor oil packs, which were recommended for many conditions such as cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), poor eliminations, epilepsy, various liver conditions such as cirrhosis and the torpid liver, scleroderma, headaches, appendicitis, arthritis, in coordination between assimilations and eliminations, colitis, intestinal disorders such as stricture and colon impaction, in coordination between nervous systems, neuritis, toxemia, and more.

For thousands of years, castor oil has been used for just about everything, from relieving menstrual cramps to easing childbirth and clearing warts.  Castor oil has been used to assist healing the body from ancient times throughout the world.  It was used therapeutically in ancient India, China, Persia, Egypt, Africa, Greece, Rome, the Americas and in 17th century Europe.

Castor oil was called the Palma Christi or the “Hand of Christ”.  It is known to be effective for many diverse types of pain, liver and gallbladder stimulation and cleansing/detox, digestive problems, lacerations, skin disorders such as eczema or psoriasis, menopause symptoms, to boost the immune system, as an emollient and skin softener and much more.  Today, many health care practitioners are discovering the benefits of using real, therapeutic quality castor oil.  Castor oil is truly one of the earth’s most versatile healing gifts, and so simple to use.

Castor oil appears to work by drawing blood circulation and enhanced biological energy to the area where it is applied, and then drawing lodged toxins out of the body.  Many practitioners often use castor oil as an important adjunct to a comprehensive treatment plan for an individual.  It is important to eradicate the root cause of an illness, not only to clear the symptoms of a disorder.  Castor oil has proven very valuable in helping to detoxify the body at deeper levels, thus eliminating the root causes.

The effectiveness of castor oil may be due in part to its unusual chemical composition.  Castor oil is a triglyceride of fatty acids.  Almost 90% of its fatty acid content consists of rinoleic acid.  Such a high concentration of this unusual unsaturated fatty acid may be responsible for castor oil’s remarkable healing abilities.  Research has shown rinoleic acid to be effective in preventing the growth of numerous species of viruses, bacteria, yeasts and molds.  Due to the many beneficial aspects of this fatty acid component, castor oil can be applied topically to treat a wide variety of health complaints.

Using castor oil topically has shown to be successful in clearing stubborn skin ailments such as ringworm, keratoses, and skin inflammation.  Generally, for these conditions, the affected area is simply wrapped in cotton cloth soaked with castor oil for one night or a few nights in a row until the area heals.  In Russia, castor oil is added to health products to restore hair growth and luster, to help resolve constipation, and to soothe eye irritations.

Much of the popularity of castor oil, especially the use of an external castor oil pack, can be attributed to the late healing psychic, Edgar Cayce, who liberally recommended the use of castor oil for many people who came to him requesting help for many types of health conditions.  Cayce was especially fond of recommending castor oil as an abdominal pack, where several layers of cotton are saturated with castor oil and then placed against the skin, after which heat is applied for about ½ to one hour.  The results were so astounding that castor oil packs are still very popular today.  Cayce recommended the use of castor oil packs in hundreds of readings to improve the body’s eliminations, lymphatic circulation and assimilation of nutrients.  By using castor oil packs, the flow of lymph is increased throughout the body.  This helps to speed the removal of toxins surrounding the cells and to reduce the size of swollen lymph nodes.  The end result is a pronounced, systemic improvement in organ function with a general lessening of fatigue and depression.  Dr. William McGary, a medical doctor in Phoenix, Arizona, who extensively studied Cayce’s medical recommendations, showed that his own patients using castor oil packs had significant increases in the production of lymphocytes as compared to those using placebo packs.  In his book, The Oil That Heals, Dr. McGary recounts many seemingly miraculous cases where castor oil packs were the key therapy used to help his patients overcome many different types of disorders in a very short time.

Beware of the source of castor oil.  Unfortunately, much castor oil currently available is derived from castor oil beans that have been cultivated with pesticides or poorly grown, thus having few or no healing properties, and which have been solvent-extracted or deodorized, which damages healing phytonutrients and imparts residual toxic solvent contaminations.

The best castor oil comes from the ancient land of its original discovery and use: India.  The non-hybrid castor beans are still grown by traditional herbal masters in the dense, central forests of India in fertile, luxurious soil and pure air.  The castor oil is cold pressed, without hexane, and is 100% pesticide-free.  The castor oil we use from Premier Research Lab is guaranteed to contain the full range of highly active, undamaged healing phytonutrients, including ricinoleic acid, undecylenic acid, and much more.