23 BRASSICA (SINAPIS) ALBA 



operate as a laxative, and have been used as a remedy in dyspepsia, 

 and in other complaints attended with torpidity of the bowels. 

 But their use in this state is by no means free from danger, as 

 they sometimes accumulate in the intestines, and have produced 

 fatal effects. They are chiefly used when mixed with black mustard 

 seeds in the form of the official mustard (Sinapis), which see. 



The seed-leaves of Sinapis alba and of Lepidium sativum are 

 used as a salad under the name of mustard and cress. 



SINAPIS. Flour of mustard, or as it is commonly termed mustard, 

 was formerly supposed to be prepared solely from black mustard 

 seeds, but whatever may have been the case, the ordinary commer- 

 cial mustard is now always manufactured from a mixture in 

 varying proportions of both black and white mustard seeds. This 

 mixture, as we have seen, also constitutes the official mustard of 

 the British Pharmacopoeia. 



Manufacture. The following method of preparing mustard was 

 furnished to Dr. Pereira by a manufacturer : The seeds of black 

 and white mustard are first crushed between rollers, and after- 

 wards pounded in mortars. The pounded seeds are then sifted. 

 The residue in the sieve is called dressings or si/tings ; what 

 passes through is impure flour of mustard. The latter by a 

 second sifting yields pure flour of mustard, and a second quantity 

 of dressings. 



General Characters. The characters of mustard as given in 

 the British Pharmacopoeia are as follows : " Greenish-yellow, of 

 an acrid bitterish oily pungent taste, scentless when dry, but 

 exhaling when moist a pungent penetrating peculiar odour, very 

 irritating to the nostrils and eyes. A decoction cooled is not 

 made blue by tincture of iodine." The latter test is added 

 for the purpose of detecting flour or starch, as the mustard of 

 commerce is frequently adulterated with these substances, which 

 are coloured by turmeric, and rendered hot by capsicum. The 

 chemical characters of mustard and the sources of its active pro- 

 perties have been already referred to when treating separately of 

 the chemical composition of black and white mustard seeds. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The properties and uses of both 

 black and white mustard seeds have been already treated of 



