Among the agents covered by the chemical weapons convention (CWC), ricin is encountered most frequently in law enforcement cases. The source material, castor seeds(Ricinus communis), is widely available as an unregulated agricultural product. The methods for toxin purification range in sophistication and can be found in the technical literature as well as internet web sites. Demonstrating that intentional purification of the toxin from the source material has occurred is important for prosecution. The analytical challenge is to determine if and what type of steps were taken to purify the toxin. To address this challenge, gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based methods were applied to quantitatively detect derivatized carbohydrate markers from hemi cellulosic and protein glycosylation, the fatty acid marker from castor oil (ricinoleic acid) as well as residual extraction solvents. The data from these methods was previously demonstrated to differentiate between ricin purification methods. This work has been extended to differentiate between material produced by intentional purification using crude and sophisticated methods as well as from castor material produced during a commercial oil extraction from castor seeds. Furthermore these analyses were applied to samples characterized for their protein content. The eventual goal is to incorporate data on protein composition and toxin activities with data on residual seed components.

Analytical methods for ricin forensics

246th National Meeting (2013)

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