Beneficiation of Castor and Thorn Trees as Management Strategy to Food Security

The consistent problems facing global food security cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, the need to respond adequately to challenges facing food security in Africa must be urgently considered. Castor seed and thorns trees are two invader plants investigated in this review. The chapter present utility benefit derived from the plants ranging from medicine, manufacturing, agriculture and food industries. The two invader plants represent idea resources as compliment to food security. Currently, no existing scientific literature has fully discussed in detail the industrial production of castor and thorn trees invader plants. Insight into the detailed information on the beneficiation of the plants to agro-food industry, properties of castor oil and nutritional composition of the thorn trees are thus discussed. In addition, some key information on how to process and access the good product quality from the plants, which are of great important to food processor were highlighted. Moreover, this study would serve as a good starting point for researchers to have future directions on the applicability of invader plants to food security in Africa.