A case of attempted suicide of a 58-year-old man using castor beans is presented. The patient came to the emergency room complaining of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea for nine hours following ingestion of six castor beans. Urine samples were taken throughout the hospital stay and submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis of ricinine, a castor bean component. The samples were found to be positive for ricinine with a maximum concentration of 674 µg/g-creatinine excreted around 23 hours post-exposure. Subsequent samples demonstrated lower ricinine concentrations with the final sample taken at 62 hours post-exposure at a concentration of 135 µg/g-creatinine of ricinine. The estimated urinary excretion half-life was around 15 hours and the recovery of ricinine in the urine over the three days was estimated to be less than 10%. The patient fully recovered with supportive care and was discharged from the hospital six days after admission.
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