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Other from South-east Nigeria

Ogiri-igbo / ogiri-isi (fermented castor seed, Nigeria)ogiri igbo

Ogiri-igbo is a pungent soup seasoning from the Igbo of south-east Nigeria, made from castor-oil seeds. The dehulled seeds are boiled for hours, left wrapped in banana leaves for days, then ground with palm-bunch ash and wrapped in small portions. Raw castor seed holds ricin, a toxin that can kill. This page records the practice the sources describe and is not a recipe to follow.

Fully documentedOther4.3 days – 6.3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo recipe is given here, because no source read shows a tested safe method. One phytochemical study used 1 kg of market-bought seed; no source read gives the ash amount, and the method is not standardised.
Dehulled castor seedsToxic raw; no source read gives a ricin result for the finished paste[ezekwe2020]
Banana leavesSeeds are wrapped in them for the boil and for the fermentation[achi2005][ezekwe2020]
Ash from burnt oil-palm bunchnot statedMixed in when the seeds are ground[achi2005][ezekwe2020]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.3 days – 6.3 days

Start
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What changes: The hulls are taken off the castor seeds

Step 1 of 5
Dehull the seeds
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Castor seeds are dehulled before cooking. Output: dehulled castor seeds.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Ogiri-igbo is a pungent soup seasoning from the Igbo of south-east Nigeria, made from castor-oil seeds. The dehulled seeds are boiled for hours, left wrapped in banana leaves for days, then ground with palm-bunch ash and wrapped in small portions. Raw castor seed holds ricin, a toxin that can kill. This page records the practice the sources describe and is not a recipe to follow. Made in 5 steps over 4.3 days – 6.3 days. The longest step, ferment the seeds still wrapped in the leaves, takes 4–6 days (Achi O.K. 2005) and runs at 30 °C (Achi O.K. 2005). Bacillus spp. does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–6 daysReported[achi2005][ezekwe2020]Ferment the seeds still wrapped in the leaves
Temperature30 °CReported[achi2005]Ferment the seeds still wrapped in the leaves
AciditypH at least 8.1Reported[achi2005]Ferment the seeds still wrapped in the leaves

What makes this one different

Ogiri-igbo is made from castor seed, which is toxic raw, and the accounts boil it for 6-8 hours before the fermentation. Melon-seed ogiri is boiled only 2-3 hours.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ogiri-egusiMade from melon seed, boiled 2-3 h, ground, and mixed with palm-bunch ash.
  • Ogiri-uguMade from fluted-pumpkin seed; 5 days at 30 °C in the review table.

Safety

Not for home practice. Raw castor seed holds ricin, a highly toxic lectin, and other toxic constituents. Reported poisonings, mostly accidental and some fatal, involved anything from a single seed to 30 seeds (Worbs 2011). The seeds are boiled for 6-8 hours and fermentation is used to reduce the toxic components, but no source read gives a ricin level for the finished condiment. In one small test, rats fed bought ogiri for 10 days had normal kidney and liver tissue, unlike rats fed raw seed (Adebayo 2019). That test did not measure ricin and does not show that a batch made this way is safe for people. Do not eat raw or lightly cooked castor seed.

Hazards the sources name: Ricin, a highly toxic lectin in castor seed, and the alkaloid ricinine (plant toxins, not microbes).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Ogiri is the name the Igbo of south-eastern Nigeria use for these condiments (Achi 2005). Ezekwe and colleagues (2020) call fermentation an age-long traditional way of making toxic foods edible, and describe ogiri-igbo as the fermented form of castor seed.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [achi2005] Achi O.K. 2005, Traditional fermented protein condiments in Nigeria, African Journal of Biotechnology 4(13):1612-1621 (review; Tables 2 and 3)paper
  2. [ezekwe2020] Ezekwe A.S. et al. 2020, Qualitative phytochemical and GC-MS analysis of fermented castor seed (Ogiri Igbo), GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences 13(2):284-289 (methods)paper
  3. [sousa2017] Sousa N.L. et al. 2017, Bio-detoxification of ricin in castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) seeds, Scientific Reports 7:15385 (abstract; ricin toxicity)paper
  4. [worbs2011] Worbs S. et al. 2011, Ricinus communis intoxications in human and veterinary medicine, a summary of real cases, Toxins 3(10):1332-1372paper
  5. [adebayo2019] Adebayo O.C., Ogidi C.O., Akinyele B.J. 2019, Nutritional value and safety of castor bean (Ricinus communis) seeds detoxified in solid-state fermentation by Pleurotus ostreatus, Biofarmasi Journal of Natural Product Biochemistry 17(2):55-64, doi:10.13057/biofar/f170201paper