Herb. No. 124 · Brassicaceae
Brown mustard of Asia; a cool-season green and a seed crop worldwide.
Native · East Asia · South Asia
Native Also grownNow a garden plant worldwide
LegalGentleplant
Brown mustard
Brassica juncea
The yellow flower that became a jar — a pungent seed, a bitter green, and a traditional chest-plaster plant.
Brown mustard is a fast brassica grown for the brown seed (hotter than white/yellow Sinapis alba) and for the leaf as a cooked green. Traditional use is as a table condiment and as a short-term chest plaster that can blister if you leave it on. Culinary seed and greens are the daily path. A plaster is folklore with a burn risk.
Flavor
Seed is hot, nutty, and sinus-clearing when wet. Leaf is bitter-mustard, sweeter after frost.
Parts used
Ripe seed · Young leaf
Helpful
- Grows in a cool month
- Seed and leaf are both food
Cautions
- Plasters blister
- Bolts in heat