Sarepta mustard (gray mustard ) -brassica juncea (l.) czern et cosson.
Botanical characteristic. Cruciferous family. An annual herbaceous plant. The stem is erect, branching, bare, reaching a height of up to 100 cm. The tap root is weak. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, lyre-shaped or pinnatipartite. The flowers are small yellow, collected in a corymbose brush. The fruit is a linear, thin, tuberculate pod. Seeds are small, spherical, black-gray or brown. Blossoms in May, fruits ripen in June.
Spreading. As a weed plant, it is found in crops, along roads and near housing in the black earth zone of the European part of the USSR, in the Caucasus, in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, less often in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, Central Asia.
Sarepta mustard is a cultivated oil plant. It is cultivated in the Kirghiz SSR, the Lower Volga region and the North Caucasus.
Of the other species, white and black mustard is known. Black mustard has light yellow corolla petals and smaller seeds; cultivate it in the southern part of Western Europe. White mustard has lyre-shaped leaves, a strongly pubescent pod with a flat nose, large light yellow seeds with a smooth surface.
Medicinal raw materials. Mustard seeds are harvested, from which essential mustard oil is obtained. The cake remaining after the squeeze is ground into a powder, which is commonly called mustard.
Chemical composition. Mustard seeds contain up to 40% fatty oil, which includes glycerides of a number of organic acids (oleic, linoleic, linolenic, etc.), 20-25% protein, up to 15% mucus, sinigrin glycoside and myrosin enzyme.
Pharmacological properties and Application.When mustard powder is treated with warm water, the glycoside sinigrin under the influence of the enzyme myrosin is broken down into glucose, allyl mustard oil and potassium sulphate. Oil gives mustard a specific smell and burning taste. In practice, a 2% solution of mustard oil in alcohol (mustard alcohol) and mustard plasters are used as local irritants and distractions. Mustard seed dough or mustard plaster applied to the surface of the body causes irritation of sensitive nerve endings, as a result of which reddening of the skin begins, which is associated with a rush of blood to this area. There is a redistribution of blood, contributing to the attenuation and reduction of inflammatory processes, primarily in the organs corresponding to the projection of the applied mustard plasters. Mustard dough is prepared from mustard powder, diluting it with warm water to the consistency of a thick mass.
Mustard oil, taken orally in small doses, enhances the separation of gastric juice, improves digestion. Mustard seeds are part of one of the gastric preparations that regulate the activity of the gastrointestinal tract.
In practice, mustard seeds in the form of dough or mustard plasters are used externally as an irritant for inflammatory phenomena in internal organs, primarily for pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy, and neuritis. Inside (seeds) of black mustard to improve digestion are given in doses: horses 20-50 g, cattle 50-100, small cattle 5-10, pigs 2-5, dogs 0.5-2 g.