Did you know that the Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea), one of the oldest spices in the world, also known for the popular saying: “can’t cut the mustard” meaning ‘can’t live up to a challenge’, has a myth in India that spreading its seeds around the external sides of the homes keeps away the evil spirits?

The Indian mustard with the scientific name Brassica juncea, ‘sarso’ in Hindi, spread over swathes of acres and acres of land creating with its blooms gorgeous yellow fields with its own distinctive properties and uses, marks its harvest with the Basant Panchami festival ushering the arrival of spring in India. The Indian mustard identified by its brown colour, distinct from the Black mustard (Brassica nigra) or White mustard (Sinapis alba), but all in the family Brassicaceae (cabbage family), is one of the world’s oldest spices and condiments known to mankind, originated in the foothills of the Himalayas, constitutes one of the various species of the mustard plants. However, Brassica juncea's origin is reportedly from the central Asian Himalayas to China, and has long been cultivated and developed in many forms. Also known as Chinese mustard, leaf mustard, Oriental mustard and vegetable mustard, it is known all over the world for its incredible diversity and immense popularity for culinary and medicinal purposes. 

The name 'Mustard' is derived from the Latin words ‘mustum ardens’, meaning ‘burning wines’, and it is so named due to the unique flavor of the crushed seeds mixed with wine grapes

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The ‘Triangle of U’, a theory propounded in 1935 by Woo Jang-choon, a Korean botanist, about the evolution and relationships among members of the plant genus Brassica, is a popular theory that establishes the unique relation between various species of mustard plants spread all over the world. 

All types of mustards are herbs and the Indian mustard in particualr is known in Indian languages as: 'sarso' in Hindi, 'jatilai' in Assamese, 'sarsapa' in Bengali, rajika राजिका and sarshapa in Sanskrit, saasive ಸಾಸಿವೆ and ಸರ್ಷಪ sarshapa in Kannada, sarsapamu సర్షపము in Telugu, katuku (also spelled Kadugu) கடுகு in Tamil, sarshapam : സര്‍ഷപം in Malayalam, and mohari मोहरी and राई rai in Marathi. The mustard plant is generally called rai or raya in India. 

Indian mustard or Brassica juncea is known by cultivars which are divided into four major subgroups: integrifolia (leaf mustard or bamboo mustard), juncea (oil-seed mustard), napiformis (root mustard), and tsatsai (multishoot mustard also known as "nine-head mustard". 

This plant can grows up to 35 to 40 inches tall when in flower. It is the parent of several distinct forms that are grown for food, oil etc. The plant loves cold and so it is preferable to plant it in the early parts of spring. The seeds must be planted to ⅓ inches to ½ inches deep, and after they grow a few inches, it is essential to thin them to few inches apart. The thinned leaves are boiled and eaten. The plant size depends on the environment, fertilizers used, and proper care of the plants. Its geographical spread ranges from Boreal Wet to Tropical Thorn through Tropical Wet Forest Life Zones. Indian Mustard is reported to tolerate annual precipitation of 500 to 4,200 mm, annual temperature of 6 to 27°C, and pH of 4.3 to 8.3.

There are two parables attributed to Mustard, could be to any type Indian mustard or white mustard or black mustard. The most popular parable is related to Buddha's teaching. It is narrated that when a young girl with her only only child dead approaches people, one after the other, to give some medicine to restore her son to life, every one directed her to Gautama Buddha. Buddha when approached by the grieving girl to give life to her son, advises her to bring some mustard seed and adds a rider saying: "You must get it from some house where no son, or husband, or parent, or slave has died." As was to be, there was no house without loss of a son or daughter or a father or a mother or any kin. She realized the futility of restoring her son to life, and she then buried the dead child in the forest and came back to Buddha to pay homage. Buddha’s repeated question to her: “Have you the mustard seed?, the girl said: "I have not. The people tell me that the living are few, but the dead are many." She thus realized the impermanence of all things and became a disciple of Buddha.

In another parable in the Bible's Gospel of Matthew, the Mustard parable is as follows: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” 

In India, it is a belief that spreading Mustard seeds around the external sides of homes keeps away the evil spirits.

Almost all parts of the plant are usable and are very easy to grow and do not need much attention; however, basic needs of proper amounts of sunlight and water is a must for these plants.

Indian mustard plant's leaves are used as a vegetable. Its seeds , small , round , dark, ground into flour are used largely as an adulterant with the true Mustard. Mustard oil, clear, not rancid is largely eaten with curries. This oil is considered inferior to rape oil. It is an essential oil resulting from grinding the mustard seeds, mixing them with water, and extracting the resulting volatile oil by distillation. This oil produced from brown Indian mustard, black mustard,, and white mustard, has a distinctive pungent taste, characteristic of all plants in the mustard family. It is the traditionally preferred oil for cooking in many parts of the country, particularly in Eastern Indian states of Bengal, Assam and Orissa. 

Mustard's medicinal use is known since ancient times much before its culinary use. Greeks are said to have used its paste to cure toothache, boost appetite, and improve blood circulation. In Indian medicine of Ayurveda its eaves, flowers, seeds and its oil is used to cure Abscesses, Colds, Lumbago, Rheumatism, Stomach disorders, Skin eruptions, Ulcers, Headache, Bladder, Inflammation, and Haemorrhage. Adopting modern electronic techniques, scientists have found that the mustard seeds have incredible power and that’s the reason they have been used as medicines since thousands of years. According to research, a small seed, only 1 millimeter in radius, generates a bioenergy field of 100 millimeter radius! These energy fields activate biochemical processes of the body and encourage healing processes. Because of the mustard’s seed bioenergy, just like the human energy field, the seeds help to keep us healthy and fit.

The mustard plant is used in phytoremediation to remove heavy metals, such as lead, from the soil in hazardous waste sites because it has a higher tolerance for these substances and stores the heavy metals in its cells. In particular, Brassica juncea was effective at removing cadmium from soil.

It would also be of interest to know that the Mount Horab Mustard Museum in Wisconsin is entirely dedicated to the mustard plant. The Museum has a collection of 5,000 jars of mustard, brought from 60 countries and 50 states. 

There is popular saying, “can’t cut the mustard” means ‘can’t live up to a challenge’! Readers of this blog may like to give a plausible explanations about how this saying originated as mustard plants can be easily sliced.

Mustard is also a very popular colour which used widely in Sarees, particularly Mysore Silk sarees.

- Narasipur Char