tf. Oo CRUCIFERiE, 97 



Moodeen Sheriff writes of the seeds thus : — " Externally, 

 it is of great service in all the diseases in which the mustard is 

 resorted to. The thick and very gummy mucilage of the seeds 

 acts as a mechanical antidote in cases of poisoning by irritant 

 substances, enveloping the poisonous particles and sheathing 

 the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestine." He 

 regards the seed as a more satisfactory rubefacient than that 

 of mustard prepared in India. According to him, the 

 mucilage obtainable from the seeds may be used as a substitute 

 for imported tragacanth and gum Arabic. " The best medicinal 

 property of this drug, is its usefulness in dysentery and dysen- 

 teric diarrhoea. The coarse powder and the thick and very 

 gummy mucilage of the seeds appear well-suited to allay the 

 irritation of the mucous coat of the intestines in those 

 diseases, and they thus relieve or check their symptoms to a 

 considerable extent. 



The leaves are gently stimulant and diuretic, as a salad, 

 serviceable in scorbutic diseases (Balfour). The oil extracted 

 from the seeds is also used medicinally. 



When prepared by steam distillation from the finely cut plants, the 

 essential oils of L. sativum consist principally of benzylthiocarbimide ; this 

 is always mixed with benzylic cyanide, especially if the plants are only 

 coarsely cut before the distillation. Both compounds are produced by the 

 decomposition of a glucoside, the former by the action of the ferment myrosin, 

 and the latter by the action of boiling water and acids. The glucoside could 

 not be obtained in crystals, but when decomposed by silver nitrate gave an 

 insoluble silver derivative, which dissolved at once in ammonia, separating 

 again in a crystalline form with two molecules of ammonia ; to this compound 

 the formula CH 2 Ph° N : C (SAg). O. S0 3 Ag-f-2NH 3 is assigned, and the acid 

 from which it is derived is named ' tropaeolic acid ;' the glucoside, to which 

 the name of ' glucotropceolin ' is given, is regarded as having the constitution—- 



CH 2 Ph.N : C (S.C 6 H u O s ). O.S0 3 K2H 2 0. 



When acted on by sodium thiosulphate, silver tropseolate gives a clear 

 solution which probably contains the sodium salt, but soon decomposes into 

 sodium sulphate and the thiocarbimide, which can then be extracted with 

 ether. J. Ch. S. 1899A I. 930. 



85. Raphanus sativus, Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 166. 



Vem. :— Muli (H.) ; Mula (B.) ; Mulli (Dec); Mullangi, 

 (Tarn., Tel. and Kan.) ; Moore (Sind.). Tara mira, mnri mungra, 

 (Pb.). 

 13 



