Brassica campestris

Brassica campestris Linn. [family CRUCIFERAE]

English field mustard.

Uses

leaf seed-oil Food: general seed-oil Medicines: skin, mucosae seed-oil Medicines: antidotes (venomous stings, bites, etc.) leaf Phytochemistry: glycosides, saponims, steroids Agri-horticulture: fodder

Description

An annual herb to 1 m or more high, originally of the Afghanistan/NW Indian area but now a world-wide cultivated plant or weed of cultivation. It is grown here and there in the West African Region.The leaf is eaten in many countries, though it may be reserved sometimes as an emergency food in time of shortage. It is often fed to cattle, but under certain circumstances it may be toxic due to the presence of the glycoside sinigrin which hydrolyses to a highly irritant volatile mustard oil. This property is used in India for treating skin-disease and snake-bite.The plant is a very important seed-oil crop in India, and varieties are recognized. Two principal sorts of oil are produced, sarsan and toria which are used for cooking (1, 2). The oil is one of the chief sources of erucic acid, a fatty acid of the oleic acid series and which has important applications in food and industry (1, 3).

References

References:1. Manjunath, 1948: 215–7, with oil analyses. 2. Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962: 325–6. 3. Zuckerman & Grace, 1949.

Planta Med 2014; 80 - P2B97. Classical TCM Brassica campestris L. pollen preparations and a newly developed phytosterol enriched refined extract significantly improve benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a rat model

K Kuchta 1, R Wang 2, Y Lin 3, HW Rauwald 4, L Fang 2, H Qiao 2, Y Kobayashi 5

1Natural Products Research, Department of Nutrition, Sanyo Gakuen University-College, 703 – 8501 Okayama, Naka, Hirai 1 – 14 – 1, Japan

2Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Pharmaceutical Technology, Zhejiang 310052, China

3Medical Corporation Soujikai, 541 – 0046 Osaka, Chuo, Hirano 2 – 2-2, Japan

4Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

5Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, 693 – 8501 Izumo, Enya 89 – 1, Japan

Congress Abstract

In Qinghai Province, the Brassica campestris pollen preparation Qianlie-Kang-Pule'an-Tablets (QKPT) is traditionally used for BPH therapy. However, the content of supposedly active phytosterols in QKPT is relatively low at only 2.59%, necessitating high doses for successful therapy. Thus, a phytosterol enriched (4.54%) refined extract (PE) was developed and compared with QKPT in a BPH rat model. Six groups of animals (n = 8 each) – sham operated distilled water control, castrated distilled water control, castrated QKPT 2.0 g/kg, castrated PE 0.1 g/kg, castrated PE 0.2 g/kg, castrated PE 0.4 g/kg – were intragastrically treated with the respective daily doses. Testosterone propionate (0.3 mg/day) was administered to all castrated rats, while the sham operated group received placebo injections. After 30 days, the animals were sacrificed and prostates as well as seminal vesicles excised and weighted for calculating prostate (PI) and seminal vesicle indexes (SVI) (organ weight g/100 g body weight). Compared with sham-operated controls, both PI (p < 0.01) and SVI (p < 0.01) were significantly increased in all castrated rats. After treatment with PE at 0.4 and 0.2 g/kg or QKPT at 2.0 g/kg per day, both indices were significantly reduced (p < 0.01) as compared to the castrated distilled water control. For PE at 0.1 g/kg per day only PI was significantly reduced (p < 0.05). At the highest PE concentration of 0.4 g/kg per day both PI and SVI were also significantly reduced when compared to QKPT (p < 0.05). Thus, both PE and QKPT demonstrated curative effects against BPH in the applied animal model. In the highest dose at 0.4 g/kg per day, PE was clearly superior to QKPT.