Black mustard

the seed of black mustard (Brassica semen)

Black mustard (Brassica nigra) is an annual of the cabbage family with yellow flowers in racemes and small, almost black seeds in narrow pods. It grows in fields, beside paths and on embankments, and here it is sown as well.

The seeds are gathered when the pods have turned brown but have not yet opened; the shoots are cut, dried and threshed, because ripe seeds otherwise shed themselves. The seeds are kept whole, because ground they soon lose their pungency.

The characteristic pungency appears only when the ground seed is mixed with water and the mustard oils are released in it; that is why mustard is pungent and mustard seed is not. In Stična mustard appears in the Monastery Mustard with Ašič's Apple Cider Vinegar.

Use and evidence

The traditional local use of rubefacients does not prove the treatment of pneumonia, rheumatism or diseases of the nerves; a description on a website must not advise long-standing compresses.