When my family first came to the U.S. in the 1970s, a lot of things Caribbean were not popular with American consumers.
Caribbean restaurants, reggae music, coconut oil, coconut water, jack fruit, ginger beer and castor oil were not on anyone’s bucket list of things to try. People would turn their noses up at the very idea of eating curry goat. Scientists warned that coconut oil would raise your cholesterol so high that you should not even smell it. (Joke!) God forbid that you take a bite out of this mammoth fruit that does not smell so good called a jackfruit! And castor oil was embraced only by folks from down South and immigrants familiar with the cleansing nature of the product.
But with cultural diversity and acceptance, we are seeing an about-face in this country when it comes to product acceptance (not people acceptance). Castor oil has become popular.
What is castor oil?
Castor oil is made from castor beans. The seeds are pressed together and produce a thick almost sticky liquid that has the same color as olive oil but is a lot thicker. It is used for industrial, medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes because it contains triglycerides and fatty acids. Castor oil can be used as an anti-inflammatory, a moisturizer, a cleanser, a hair thickener and strengthener, etc.
In recent years Jamaican castor oil, specifically Jamaican black castor oil, has become well known in the beauty industry as a great Black hair care product. Jamaican black castor oil originated from Africa. During the slave trade between 1740 and 1810 it was brought to the Caribbean on slave ships. It began to be harnessed for its healing qualities in the beginning of the 19th century and has since evolved into a product that is exported to America and the European continents primarily for hair care. Castor oil is known to support hair growth and rid the scalp of toxins and fungi, and it can be used as a deep treatment to protect the ends of your hair from breakage.
Many Jamaican castor oils are popping up on the market and Haiti has also gotten into the beauty product game. A Haitian black castor oil called Kreyol Essence has recently come on the market, advertised as an oil that “brings natural hair, skin and body products from Haiti to the world.”
Castor oil has long been used in the Caribbean as a laxative cleanser. I recall what we now refer to as the castor oil rituals. When doctors were few and far between, parents had to attempt to solve medical issues on their own, and that meant a castor oil cleanse. This mainly happened after mango season. All children had to be given a cleanse that we referred to as a wash-out to get rid of potential intestinal parasites. All the kids in the family would be put in a single-file lineup, while parents were armed with a bottle of castor oil and a tablespoon in hand, with candies or orange slices nearby to get rid of that awful, awful taste. Whether you had parasites or not, you were a candidate for a wash-out. On occasion, if a child had certain spots on their skin, the remedy was also castor oil.
While growing up in Jamaica, I overheard my grandmother speaking to her friends about a young woman who was having her first child and was in labor for at least 20 hours. The doctor gave the young lady a spoon of castor oil and she gave birth in a matter of minutes after ingesting the liquid. When I became pregnant, about two weeks past my due date the story came flooding back to me, and after doing some research and establishing that it would not harm the baby, I decided to take a spoon of castor oil. I cannot describe how rapidly the baby moved. I know for sure that the taste and the smell not only affected me but also the baby. I drank plenty of water to dilute the castor oil in my stomach and I did not give birth for about another week. I would never do that again!
When used for medicinal purposes, I can tell you that castor oil does not taste good. It does not matter how many years have passed since your last dose; the brain can never forget. But whether you use it as a laxative or a beauty product, it does get the job done. You can’t knock it till you try it. And don’t forget to consult your physician if you are using it medicinally.
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