'Moving on to more "exotic" techniques to increase immune system efficiency, we come to castor oil. I can remember my dad telling me time after time about his mother's devotion to castor oil when he was growing up. At the first sign of any illness in one child, she would immediately give all the children a quick oral dose of castor oil. There's no doubt it provided a quick solution for constipation, and from what I can tell, it must have a positive effect on memory too. My dad can vividly remember the taste and effects of castor oil to this very day.
In many ways, castor oil is a very unique substance. While most of us are familiar with its use as a remedy for constipation, folk healers in this country and around the world have used castor oil to treat a wide variety of conditions. Its effectiveness is probably due in part to its peculiar chemical composition.
Castor oil is a triglyceride of fatty acids. Almost 90 percent of its fatty acid content consists of ricinoleic acid. To my knowledge, ricinoleic acid is not found in any other substance except castor oil. Such a high concentration of this unusual, unsaturated fatty acid is thought to be responsible for castor oil's remarkable healing abilities.'
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