Identification and characterization of phenolic compounds in castor seed.

Phenolic compounds, polyphenols, and flavonoids occur ubiquitously in plant kingdom, because they are important in plants for normal growth development and defense against infection and injury. Currently, there are no reports available on the phenolic compounds obtained from the residues of the oil-extracting process from defatted castor seed powder. Our studies, for the first time, in methanol-ether extract showed five low-molecular weight phenolic compounds namely p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, o-coumaric acids, syringic, and cinnamic acids, which were in the soluble ether fractions. All these compounds showed strong absorbance at 240 nm.