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Background: Oral health is one of the key indicators of the quality of life, overall health and well‑being of the general population. Globally, the high prevalence of the periodontal disease, excessive tooth loss, dental caries experiences, oral cancers and xerostomia are the major issues reported among adult populations. Timely access to oral healthcare facilities preserves the function, morbidity and mortality. The best possible health outcomes are only possible if the personal health care services are accessible timely. So, the primary objective of this study was to explore the barriers to the access of oral health care facilities among adults. In addition, the study also determined the association between adult’s demographic factors and their visits to dental clinics.  Subjects and methods: This exploratory study was conducted for two months between November 2019 and January 2020. The study recruited 400 adults including 200 males and 200 females visiting outpatient department (OPD) of public hospital i.e. Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Participants were included in this study if they were 18 years of age or older and had provided written informed consent before data collection. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire whereas barriers to access the oral healthcare facilities was confirmed by asking an open-ended question. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to calculate descriptive statistics (i.e., mean, standard deviation, percentages). The study also determined the association between sociodemographic factors of adults and their tendency to visit dental clinics just for routine checkups using the chi-square test. Results: The average age of the participants was 36.81±9.29 years ranged from 18 – 63 years. Of the 400 participants, 259 (64.75%) reported costly treatment as a barrier affecting access to oral healthcare facilities followed by difficulty in access to dental clinics (27.75%) and fear of the pain of dental procedures (20.25%). Only 52 (13%) adults were regularly visiting dental clinics for routine check-ups whereas 21 (5.25%) respondents never had been to the dentist throughout their life. Nearly, half of the respondents i.e. 189 (47.25%) stated that dental care expenditures were borne by them and none of them was health insured. Statistically, a significant association was found between demographics (i.e. education, rural background and income) and the tendency to visit the dental clinics (p<0.05). Conclusion: Expensive treatment, difficulty in accessing dental facilities and fear from dental procedures are the major barriers to the utilization of dental services. Access to dental clinics for routine check-ups is significantly influenced by sociodemographic factors.

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fats as their primary raw material. Nigeria, however, being a tropical country, has wide variations in climatic conditions and therefore has a wide variety of domestic plants that produce oil. Lack of information on the composition and utilization of the many and varied oil seeds, indigenous to Nigeria are more of a problem than shortage of these oils [7]. Hence the purpose of this work is to characterize R. communis genotypes for physicochemical properties and oil properties of the different genotypes. Materials and MethodsTen accessions of R. communis were obtained from various locations in Enugu state, Nigeria. They were planted in a randomized complete block design in the field for two consecutive years under rain fed conditions. The seeds harvested were used for these analyses at Springboard laboratory, Awka; Crop Science Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria, respectively.The castor beans were ground into a paste. A soxhlet extractor was used for solvent extraction of the oil. The solvent used was hexane and it was repeated several times, at the end of the extraction, the resulting mixture called miscella containing the oil was heated to recover the oil [8]. The residual oil was collected and used for analytical work. The chemical properties investigated were fatty acid composition, Keywords: Castor oil; Ricinoleic acid; Ricinus communis; Euphorbiaceae IntroductionThe castor bean plant belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. The spurge family (Euphorbiaceae) is one of the most diverse and numerous clades of the angiosperms, including several species of great economic importance as rubber tree (Hevea brasilensis), cassava (Manihot esculenta) and castor bean (Ricinus communis). Castor bean, the single member of the African genus Ricinus, presents a wide variation regarding vegetative traits such as leaf and stem colors, number and size of leaf lobes and presence of wax covering the stem [1]. Despite being a member of the family, Euphorbiaceae, a diverse and economically-important family of flowering plant, castor bean plant is regarded as one of the deadliest natural poison ever known to man according to Guinness Book of Records due to the presence of ricin. It is highly toxic to humans and other animals, including insects [2]. If the seed is swallowed without chewing and there is no damage to the seed coat, it will most likely pass harmlessly through the digestive tract. However, if it is chewed or broken and swallowed, the ricin toxin will be absorbed by intestines and will bring about abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea [3]. It originates from India and cultivated in the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the world [2]. India is the world's largest producer of castor seed and meets most of the global demand for castor oil; other major producers being China, Brazil and Ethiopia and Paraguay [4]. Castor bean oil is widely used for its lubricating properties and medicinal purposes in industry. It is also used for manufacturing of soaps, lub...