N. 0. CRUOIFER.E. 
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 bn 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 benzylthiocarblmide ; 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. Tho 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 OH, Ph° N : 0 (SAg). O. S0 3 Ag+2NH 3 is assigned, and the acid 
from which it is derived is named 1 tropaeolic acid the glucoside, to which 
the name of ‘ glucotropasolin ' is given, is regarded as having the constitution — 
OH,Ph.N : C (S.CjHuO,,). O.S0 3 K2H,0. 
When acted on by sodium thiosulphate, silver tropreolate 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. 
Vern .: — Muli (H.) ; Mula (B.) ; Mulli (Dec.); Mullangi, 
(Tam., Tel. and Kan.) ; Moore (Sind.), Tara mira, muri mungra, 
(Pb.). 
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