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 in 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 dysenteric diarrhœa. 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 benzylthiocarbimide; 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. The 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 CH2 Ph° N: C (SAg). O. SO 3 Ag+2NH 3 is assigned, and the acid from which it is derived is named tropaeolic acid; the glucoside, to which the name of glucotropœolin is given, is regarded as having the constitution—- CH 2 Ph.N : C (S.C 6 H 11 O 5 ). O.S0 3 K2H 2 0.
When acted on by sodium thiosulphate, silver tropæolate 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.).
