Editing Castor oil (section)

=== Use in torture ===
A heavy dose of castor oil could be used as a humiliating punishment for adults. Colonial officials used it in the [[British Raj]] (India) to deal with recalcitrant servants.<ref>{{cite book|author=Cecilia Leong-Salobir|title=Food Culture in Colonial Asia: A Taste of Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0a4QLN1CQgC&pg=PA66|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=66|isbn=9781136726545|access-date=2016-01-08|archive-date=2023-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114165305/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0a4QLN1CQgC&pg=PA66|url-status=live}}</ref> 
Belgian military officials prescribed heavy doses of castor oil in [[Belgian Congo]] as a punishment for being too sick to work.<ref>{{Cite book|title=King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa|last=Adam.|first=Hochschild|date=1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=978-0547525730|edition=1st Mariner books|location=Boston|pages=166|oclc=759834634}}</ref> Castor oil was also a tool of punishment favored by the [[Falangism|Falangist]] and later [[Francoist Spain]] during and following the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Preston |first=Paul |url=http://archive.org/details/spanishholocaust0000pres |title=The Spanish holocaust : inquisition and extermination in twentieth-century Spain |date=2012 |publisher=New York : W.W. Norton & Co. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-393-06476-6 |pages=139, 156, 169, 187, 201, 202, 212, 310, 315, 321, 326, 449}}</ref> Its use as a form of [[Gender violence and rape in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition|gendered violence]] to repress women was especially prominent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Juan">{{Cite web |last=Juan |first=Carmen Miguel |date=2016-04-06 |title=Mujeres y dictadura franquista: la historia silenciada |url=https://www.eldiario.es/contrapoder/mujeres-dictadura-franquista_132_4067401.html |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=elDiario.es |language=es |archive-date=2023-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216201135/https://www.eldiario.es/contrapoder/mujeres-dictadura-franquista_132_4067401.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 
This began during the war where [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist]] forces would specifically target  Republican-aligned women, both troops and civilians, who lived in [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republican]]-controlled areas.<ref name=":0" /> 
The forced drinking of castor oil occurred alongside sexual assault, rape, torture and murder of these women.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Juan"/> Its most notorious use as punishment came in [[History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars|Fascist Italy]] under [[Benito Mussolini]]. It was a favorite tool used by the [[Blackshirts]] to intimidate and humiliate their opponents.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Italy The rise of Mussolini |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2007 |url=http://britannica.com/eb/article-27762/Italy |access-date=2007-08-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014023531/http://britannica.com/eb/article-27762/Italy |archive-date=October 14, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news   | title =Benito's Birthday   | publisher =Time, in partnership with CNN   | date = August 6, 1923   | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716284,00.html?iid=chix-sphere   | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080407195821/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716284,00.html?iid=chix-sphere   | url-status =dead   | archive-date =April 7, 2008   | access-date =2007-08-03  }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book   | last =Bosworth   | first =R. J. B.   | title =Mussolini   | publisher =Arnold/Oxford Univ. Press   | year= 2002   | location =New York   | isbn =978-0-340-73144-4 }}</ref> 
[[Political dissident]]s were force-fed large quantities of castor oil by [[Fascism|fascist]] squads so as to induce bouts of extreme diarrhea in the victims. This technique was said to have been originated by [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] or [[Italo Balbo]].<ref>"Bearded like a medieval condottiere, bluff yet suave, fearless and supple, [Italo Balbo] was not the type to pass unnoticed anywhere. His admirers here chose to forget the Blackshirt club-wielder and reputed inventor of the castor-oil treatment for Fascist foes"<br/> [https://www.nytimes.com/1940/07/01/archives/marshal-balbo.html Marshal Balbo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429102059/https://www.nytimes.com/1940/07/01/archives/marshal-balbo.html |date=2021-04-29 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 1, 1940, p. 18.</ref> This form of torture was potentially deadly, as the administration of the castor oil was often combined with [[Baton (law enforcement)|nightstick]] beatings, especially to the [[Buttocks|rear]], so that the resulting diarrhea would not only lead to dangerous dehydration but also [[Infection|infect]] the open wounds from the beatings. However, even those victims who survived had to bear the [[humiliation]] of the laxative effects resulting from excessive consumption of the oil.<ref name="Did Mussolini">{{cite web |author=Cecil Adams |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21342121/did-mussolini-use-castor-oil-as-an-instrument-of-torture |title=Did Mussolini use castor oil as an instrument of torture? |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=1994-04-22 |access-date=2014-08-09 |archive-date=2020-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101021504/https://www.straightdope.com/21342121/did-mussolini-use-castor-oil-as-an-instrument-of-torture |url-status=live }}</ref>