Oct. i S> 1920 Mustard Seeds and Substitutes: I. Chinese Colza 133 



PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA 

 GENERAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 



Chinese colza seed when chewed has an earthy and slightly pungent 

 taste, the flavor being suggestive of cabbage or turnip rather than of 

 mustard. When a few grams of the freshly triturated seed macerated 

 with water have stood in a closed vessel at room temperature for a few 

 minutes, the odor of the volatile oil formed may readily be noted. This 

 odor gradually becomes weaker, however, and after the mixture has 

 stood for 24 hours, more or less, the odor is largely gone and is often 

 replaced by an odor of hydrogen sulphid. The mustards (except white 

 mustard) give the characteristic mustard oil flavor and irritating sensa- 

 tion to the membranes of nose and eyes much more strongly and for a 

 longer period. In fact, while the vapor of true mustard oil, even in 

 very small amounts, causes great discomfort to eyes, nose, and lungs, 

 the effect of the vapor of crotonyl isothiocyanate was by no means to 

 be compared in intensity and hardly in character. 



The ground seed, with small amounts of water added, was applied in 

 the form of a plaster to the skin of the arm. No more than a reddening 

 was caused after 2 or more hours of application; no blistering whatsoever 

 was noted, and the reddening soon disappeared. It was necessary to 

 remove plasters prepared similarly with true mustards after shorter 

 application, and blisters were left. When applied to the skin the 

 isolated volatile oil itself caused only a burning sensation and a tempo- 

 rary reddening. 



PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTION 



While no pharmacological experiments were made in this investiga- 

 tion, those of Sjollema and others may be briefly mentioned. Sjollema 

 (35> P- 3 I 5) gave 0.212 gm. of the oil (crotonyl isothiocyanate isolated 

 from rape) to a rabbit in the form of an emulsion but observed no abnor- 

 mal symptoms. After about three hours the animal began to eat again, 

 appeared entirely normal, and lived. Allyl mustard oil, isolated from 

 black mustard, given in the same amounts and under comparable con- 

 ditions, caused death to a rabbit within a few hours. The experiments 

 were repeated with the same result. Stein (37) confirms Sjollema's find- 

 ings in general upon the basis of a larger series of experiments, also with 

 rabbits. He concludes that while the symptoms of poisoning are in a 

 way the same as those caused by allyl isothiocyanate, the general toxic 

 (resorptive) as well as the locally cauterizing properties are far less pro- 

 nounced in the case of crotonyl isothiocyanate. The toxic dosis may be 

 estimated to be 0.5 gm. of crotonyl, against less than 0.1 gm. of allyl 

 isothiocyanate per kilo body weight. 



He experimented also with a goat (24 kgm. in weight) adding to the 

 feed of ground potato and sugar beets the following amounts of crotonyl 



