turmeric ; a portion of sulphur may be detected in the different kinds of mustard seeds., and when mustard 
as prepared for a condiment, putrifies, it exhales the odour of sulphuretted hydrogen. 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The seeds of both the black and white mustard agree in 
their sensible qualities, and are used indiscriminately at our tables. They are pungent and acrimonious 
when bruised, and by the addition of vinegar become much more so. A mild oil, having a sweetish taste 
and a slight nauseous odour, and which soon turns rancid, is yielded by expression, the acrid matter being 
chiefly retained by the fecula. The seeds afford one-fifth of their weight of this oil, which in large doses 
operate as a purgative. The mark which remains after expressing is more pungent than the seeds pre- 
viously were, and on this account they are submitted to pressure previous to being formed into flour of 
mustard to be used as a condiment. Unbruised, they simply yield mucus to boiling water, which resides in 
the skin. Water takes up all the active properties of the powder of mustard, and alcohol but little. The 
seeds give off ammonia by trituration with lime water, which is probably owing to some decomposition 
taking place, which, yielding hydrogen, it combines with the nitrogen present in the seeds, and the volatile 
alkali is produced. 
Dr. Cullen long ago observed, that if mustard-seeds be taken fresh from the plants, and ground, the 
powder has little pungency, but is very bitter ; by steeping in vinegar, however, the essential oil is cooled, 
and the powder becomes extremely pungent. M. Thibierge has since analyzed mustard, and obtained from 
it the following products : — 1. A soft, fixed oil, of a dark greenish colour, soluble in alcohol and ether, 
which is procured by pressure. 2. Another oil, obtained by distillation, of a golden yellow colour, volatile, 
heavier than water, having a hot acrid taste, soluble in alcohol and depositing sulphur. It is this oil which 
irritates the eves and excites tears, in mustard prepared for the table, and which vesicates when mustard is 
applied to the skin. 3. An albuminous vegetable principle ; 4. a large quantity of mucilage; 5. sulphur; 
6. nitrogen ; 7- the seeds incinerated appear to contain phosphate and sulphate of lime, and a little silex. 
\Journ. de Pharm. v, 439.] Henry and Garot have ascertained that mustard contains a peculiar acid, which 
they have named the sulpho-sinapic, in which sulphur is supposed to exist in a peculiar state of combi- 
nation. (Journ. de Chirur. Med.) 
Medical Properties and Uses. — A large tea-spoonful of the powder of mustard-seed mixed in 
water, produces vomiting, and on account of its stimulating properties, is perhaps preferable to other emetics, 
when the stomach has been rendered torpid, by apoplectic, or paralytic affections. It is even asserted that it 
has acted in such cases, when other emetics have failed : and diffused in a large quantity of warm water, it 
is always a useful auxiliary to them. The unbruised seeds, swallowed in doses of half an ounce to an ounce, 
have relieved chronic rheumatism. Bergius, who is extremely fond of combining other agents with cin- 
chona bark, says that its activity is much increased, by being mixed with flour of mustard, and he even 
asserts that he has cured intermittants solely by its use. The great Boerhaave, also, gives the case of a girl 
at Amsterdam, who after taking a variety of medicines for chorea, was at last restored to perfect health by 
white mustard seeds. They are proper j he observes, in hypochondriac affections, obstructions of the liver, 
and spleen, in dropsy, scurvy, cachexy, and chlorosis. Combined with horse-radish, they are stimulant and 
diuretic, and as such are useful in broken down constitutions. In cases of dyspepsia, attended by habitual 
costiveness in leucophlegmalic constitutions, two or three tea-spoonsfuls of the whole seed, repeated two or 
three times a day, will frequently prove beneficial, but the injudicious manner in which their virtues have 
been lauded, has led to the abuse of a useful remedy, which in improper hands has produced ulceration of 
the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, and other serious consequences. Instances of 
this kind are mentioned in Wheeler’s Catalogue of the Officinal Plants growing in Chelsea Gardens. He 
says, he has known the seeds retained for more than a week in the primce vice, and enteritis^ and even death 
to ensue from these irritating seeds entering the appendix coeci vermiformis. Van Swieten also re- 
lates the case of a strong healthy man, attacked with a quartan ague, who swallowed a large quantity of 
bruised mustard seeds steeped in Hollands. Inflammatory fever followed, and carried him off in three 
days. In typhus fever, when there is extreme depression of the vital powers, or determination of blood to 
the head ; and in comatose affections, cataplasms, or sinapisms, as they are more frequently termed, com- 
posed of equal parts of flour of mustard and of crumbs of bread, made into a paste with hot vinegar, are 
applied to the feet, and act as powerful rubefacients. If continued too long, very intense pain is produced 
by them, and inflammation which it is difficult to subdue. 
Off. Prep. — Cataplasma Sinapis. L. D * 
The seeds of mustard are not only remarkable for the rapidity of their development so that it has been 
said a salad might be grown while a joint of meat was being roasted, but also for their tenacity of life, for 
where a crop of mustard has been once seeded, self-sown stragglers will come up for a century afterwards. 
* Whithead’s “ Essence of Mustard ” consists of oil of turpentine, camphor, and spirits of rosemary; to which is added a little 
flour of mustard. His “ Essence of Mustard Pills” are Balsam of Tolu, with resin! 
