Castor is one of the most important industrial oilseed crops in tropical and subtropical areas covering countries like Brazil, China, India, Russia, Yugoslavia and several other countries in Latin America and Africa. Besides its main use as lubricant it is also used in the manufacturing of perfumed hair oil and soaps. Castor oil is also useful in medicine because of its strong laxative action. The quality castor finest oil is used in aeroengines.
S J Kolte, Professor of Plant Pathology, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttar Pradesh, India, is Project Leader of the Oilseeds Pathology Project at Pantnagar. He is the author of four other books and has written many book chapters, review papers, published in journals & bulletins. He has written 54 research papers in field of oilseed crop diseases. He received the Ph.D (1971) in Plant Pathology from Pantnagar University. He has visited Canada, USA, UK, Sweden, Ethiopia and China, as part of his research responsibilities on oilseed crop diseases
Introduction : The Castor crop. Castor Diseases: Fungal Diseases, Biodeterioration, Bacterial Diseases, Virus Diseases, Parasitic Nematodes, Non-parasitic Diseases. Agronomy of Castor. Breeding and Castor Crop Improvement. Seed Production of Castor.Insect Pests of Castor Diseases: An Update