260 MAINE AGRICUl/rURAI. EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



MUSTARD. 



There are a large number of species of mustard, but mustard 

 seed of commerce should be either the white mustard, Sinapis' 

 alba, or black or brown mustard, Brassica nigra, or Brassica 

 juncea. As there are a large number of wild mustards which 

 infest mustard as well as other fields, it frequently is well nigh a 

 mechanical impossibility to obtain a mustard seed free from wild 

 mustard. Many of the mustards collected by the Station con- 

 tain the ground seeds of Brassica arvejisis* 



Ground mustard as defined by the food standards, is a powder 

 made from mustard seed with or without the removal of the 

 hulls and a portion of the fixed oil. There was formerly a more 

 or less prevalent idea that pure mustard would lump unless 

 starch or flour were mixed with it. In the case of • 4 of the 

 samples examined, foreign starches were present in more or less 

 quantities. These were probably not added in the ordinary 

 sense of adulteration but to prevent caking. 



Sample No. 7081 was labeled as a compound mustard which 

 explains the presence of the legumes and wheat flour. Three 

 of the samples carried more or less turmeric. While turmeric 

 possesses some. value as a condiment in itself, it being, for 

 instance, the chief ingredient in curry powder, it is added to 

 mustard merely to improve the color. While under the Maine 

 Pure Food law its use would be admissable if its presence is 

 stated upon the label, its presence unnoted is an adulteration. 



The analyses of the dififerent brands of mustard examined are 

 given on pages 270-271. 



BLACK AND WHITE PEPPER. 



Black pepper is the dried immature berry of the pepper plant, 

 Piper nigrum, a climbing shrub growing to the height of 12 to 

 20 feet; a native of the East Indies but cultivated in many 

 tropical countries. When the fruit begins to turn red, it is 

 gathered and dried. In this process, it turns black and shrivels 

 up, forming the black peppercorns of commerce. 



White pepper is obtained by decorticating (removing hulls or 

 shells) the fully ripened black peppercorns. The pepper hulls 



•The seed is thus iflentifled by the Bureau of Chemistry, but is probably the 

 same as Brassica campestris. 



