Mustard Herbal Monograph
By Amanda Rose Klenner
Originally published in Natural Herbal Living Magazine April 2016
Latin name: Sinapis spp., Sinapis arvensis (wild mustard), Sinapis nigra (black mustard), Sinapis alba (white mustard), Brassica juncea (leaf mustard)
Family: Brassicaceae
Common names: Mustard, wild mustard, white mustard, Brassica alba (this was a former classification), black mustard, Bai Jie Zi (white mustard seed in TCM)
Parts used: Seeds (primarily), young leaves, and flowers
Herbal actions: diaphoretic, emetic, irritant, laxative, rubefacient, stimulant, analgesic
Energetics: warming, pungent, acrid
Constituents: volatile oils, fixed oils, glycerides of oleic, stearic, erucic, behenic, and brassic acids, Sulphur, allyl isothiocyanates
Last year, one of my students came to class with a nasty and painful bruise on her knee. A child had recently kicked her, and it dislocated her knee and demonstrated just how weak her tendons were. This had happened a week before she came to my class, but the bruise didn’t seem to be clearing up; the area had gone stagnant. This student tends to run cold, and hadn’t been walking much because of the pain. This was the perfect opportunity demonstrate the use of a mustard poultice.
We ground up some black mustard seeds, combined them with flax seed meal, and moistened it up with warm water. We spread the mustard plaster onto cheesecloth and placed that on her knee for about 10 minutes. She reported the pain was noticeably better. The poultice caused some skin irritation, but that went away after a few hours. The next day, the bruise started to break up and clear, turning that yellow color of a bruise that is healing, and, coincidentally, of mustard.
Mustards have been used medicinally for ages, being an intrinsic part of TCM, Ayurveda, and Greek medicine, being passed on to healers, mothers, and doctors throughout time for some tried and true remedies. Although, here in America, we tend to use mustard primarily as a condiment, diluted with vinegar and colored with turmeric, it was very recently indispensable in the European and American Pharmacopeias.
Internal Uses
When taken internally, in large doses, the powder or flour made from the seed can induce vomiting when other emetics fail (1). It seems to be specifically indicated for people who have narcotic poisoning (2). (As always, if this is an issue and medical care is an option, it is better to go to the ER and be treated by a doctor than trying to induce vomiting at home). Powdered mustard seed can be very harsh on the stomach lining, causing similar redness and burns that we might see on the skin from a mustard poultice left for too long, so if mustard powder is given as an emetic, the practitioner needs to insure that the person actually does vomit, so as not to do more harm with the powder.
The whole seed, uncrushed, can be taken by the teaspoonful as a laxative to help move slow, cold, stagnant bowels. Nineteenth century medical doctor and author John Steggall suggested that white mustard is the best choice for “dyspepsia, where there is a torpid state of the bowels.”(3) This most likely works because the whole mustard seeds have mucilage in their outer shell, but can still act as an irritant to help expel the seeds, and the built-up stools along with it.
In smaller doses, often diluted with vinegar or starches, mustard is a stomachic (1) and an appetite stimulant. When enjoyed with meals, it can improve digestion and nutrient absorption. It is particularly helpful for those who get gassy and bloated after eating heavy meals. Note that the heat from mustard is very much cooled by adding vinegar to it.
Have you ever wondered why Chinese mustard is so much spicier than American mustard? It is because American mustard is made with vinegar, giving it a tangy but not extremely hot flavor. Chinese mustard is made primarily with water, which potentiates the release of the very hot volatile oils (4). (In this case, a small amount of vinegar or wine is added after mixing, only to “fix” the spiciness.) Either way, mustard is being used as a way to ease the assimilation of hard to digest foods.
When eaten as a condiment, mustard can also improve circulation, and cool the body when a person has a fever. A tea of the leaves helps take internal heat and push it out of the body, which can feel like a hot flushing of the skin. It opens up the pores, which helps to further cool the body. Similarly, it opens up the lungs and the digestive tract, stimulating the body to expel excess mucous from both the lungs and the bowels.
Renowned physician and courtier, John Evelyn said, “Mustard, especially in young seedling plants, is of incomparable effect to quicken and revive the spirits, strengthening the memory, expelling heaviness, . . . besides being an approved antiscorbutic.”(5)
We see this reviving quality often in plants that are stimulating and uplifting in nature. Mustard takes the deep, dark parts of our body and pushes them to the surface so they can be expelled. In this way, one can see how mustard, by improving digestion and possibly stimulating the liver, can be helpful for those who are in a stagnant depression. Here, Evelyn is talking about the young mustard plant with leaves, before it has gone to flower.
People would generally eat mustard greens in the early spring, as it is often one of the first potherbs to pop up after a long hard winter of carefully rationing food. I tend to perk up when the first spring greens show their lovely leaves. It means that we have survived another winter, and abundance is on its way for the coming year.
Topical Uses
Topically, mustard is an excellent rubefacient and analgesic. When used topically, mustard is usually powdered, and combined in a 1:3 ratio with a binding starch like wheat, barley, rye, or even bread. It is moistened to where it is soft and moldable, like a wet dough, and either applied topically as a plaster, or spread onto thin cloth like cheese cloth, and applied topically for 5-15 minutes, then removed.
Eclectic doctor Harvey Wilkes Felter gives some examples of the many uses for the mustard plaster:
“For the purposes named, the mustard plaster or sinapism may be applied to the chest and the abdomen in acute inflammation of the viscera, to the epigastrium and spine to check persistent vomiting from gastric irritability, and in gastralgia, gastritis, flatulence, to the abdomen in colic, over the loins in suppression of urine, lumbago and backache, to the nape of the neck in congestive headache and cerebral congestion, to the spine, legs, and soles of the feet to arouse from apoplexy, stupor, and coma, to the praecordial region in syncope, and locally to the areas involved in myalgia, neuralgias, muscular rheumatism, and inflammations of the joints. They should be used with great care upon children and debilitated individuals. Never more than one fourth mustard and three fourths white or rye flour should be employed in either, and the strength of the poultice can be regulated better in this manner than by using the ready prepared plaster.
However, for general purposes the plaster, mustard leaves or papers, are most convenient, always ready for immediate use, and quickly and cleanly applied, first dipping them in water.” (2)
A plaster to the chest is a tried and true remedy to stimulate expectoration, moving up and out excess phlegm from the respiratory tract.
For achy sore joints and muscles, a poultice left on the skin until it starts to turn red is plenty to have a soothing and warming effect on the muscles. I find it is most useful for chronic pain and stagnant injuries, where a person perhaps was injured weeks, months, or years prior, but still suffers pain and stiffness in the joints. Because of the ability of mustard to warm up and stimulate the deepest parts of the body, it seems to work well for these injuries, where not much else works well.
It can also be extracted in vinegar or rubbing alcohol and combined with other herbs to make a stimulating, moving, and warming liniment to help reduce pain and improve circulation.
When a person has a high fever, the diaphoretic properties of mustard are nice to have on hand. Make a strong tea with the leaves, or a decoction with the seeds, and add 1–2 cups of that tea to bath water; this will help irritate the skin, open the pores, and release the fever. Once the whole body turns flush, get out of the bath and watch that fever break.
Flower Essence
Mustard flower essence is one of Bach’s original essences. It is said to help with deep, dark depressions that come on quickly with no known cause. Dr. Bach says “This remedy dispels gloom and brings joy into life.” It is meant to bring inan “inner serenity that nothing can shake or destroy.”(6)
I have used it with clients who tend to quickly fall into a funk with seemingly no provocation. One day they are fine, and the next they feel as though the world has lost all of its color. There are other Bach remedies for depression, but mustard does well with seemingly causeless depression. That being said, it also can help a person figure out why they are falling into depressive states, especially if that depression is brought on by repressed emotions or trauma. It can help prepare the person mentally to take the steps needed to resolve these long-suppressed issues.
I think this goes along with the plant’s overall picture very well. This is a plant that will irritate your body into doing what it needs to heal. In that way, the flower essence can be abrasive when a person is ready to dig up a deep-seeded repressed memory, event, or feeling, and help move them on to working through those emotional issues. That being said, if a person is working through deep, dark depression, and could be triggered, be sure they are under the care of a mental health practitioner if they need to be.
Dosage
For an emetic, start with 1 teaspoon of mustard flour combined with a touch of warm water. Continue dosing every 15 minutes until emesis is complete.
For a laxative, put 1–2 teaspoons of whole seed in a glass of water, and drink it. Do not repeat until a whole 24 hours has passed.
As a plaster: Mix a 1:3 ratio of mustard powder to your starchy flour of choice. Add water to make a paste. Spread the paste onto a thin cloth and then place it on skin, paste-side down. Remove it once the skin is red and irritated. Remove the poultice after 20 minutes, to avoid blistering of the skin.
Caution: Use the plaster with extreme caution on people who have sensitive skin, children, and the elderly.
Topical application of vinegar: Rub 1-2 teaspoons of infused vinegar on the area that needs the attention.
Vinegar taken internally: Ingest 1 teaspoon as needed. This can be diluted in water and a little honey and water if the flavor is too much.
Safety and Contraindications
Mustard can be irritating to the skin and mucous membranes, and should be used with caution, intent, and proper safety parameters. When applied topically, it is supposed to irritate the skin, which is where the analgesic properties come into play. Once the skin has turned red, remove the mustard. If it isn’t removed, the skin can blister or burn. Too much mustard internally can cause emesis or have laxative effects, and may irritate the bowels for a prolonged period of time.
References:
1) Biddle, John Barclay. Materia Medica, for the Use of Students. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1878.
2) Felter, Harvey Wickes. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Cincinnati, O.: J. K. Scudder, 1922.
3) Steggall, John. A Text Book of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. London: J. Churchill, 1837. p282
4) Dunglison, Robley. General Therapeutics and Materia Medica. Volume 1. Philadelphia, PA: Lea and Blanchard, 1846.
5) Evelyn, John, and John Bowle. The Diary of John Evelyn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
6) Krishnamoorty, V. Beginner's Guide to Bach Flower Remedies: With Repertory. New Delhi, India: B. Jain Publishers, 2004.
