The OP might be referring to some of the internet claims out there that castor oil, plus prayer, lots of prayer, etc, can heal optic nerve damage. In fact, naturalistic and herbal sites seem to tout castor oil for all kinds of eye problems, but the only halfway solid paper I've ever seen is one done in 2002 by Goto, regarding a small study indicating that a kind of treated castor oil might be useful for dry eye: