Brassicaceae Mustards: Phytochemical Constituents, Pharmacological Effects, and Mechanisms of Action against Human Disease

Abstract

The Brassicaceae genus consists of many economically important mustards of value for food and medicinal purposes, namely Asian mustard (Brassica juncea), ball mustard (Neslia paniculata), black mustard (B. nigra), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Asian hedge mustard (S. orientale), oilseed rape (B. napus), rapeseed (B. rapa), treacle mustard (Erysimum repandum), smooth mustard (S. erysimoides), white ball mustard (Calepina irregularis), white mustard (Sinapis alba), and Canola. Some of these are commercially cultivated as oilseeds to meet the global demand for a healthy plant-derived oil, high in polyunsaturated fats, i.e., B. napus and B. juncea. Other species are foraged from the wild where they grow on roadsides and as a weed of arable land, i.e., E. repandum and S. erysimoides, and harvested for medicinal uses. These plants contain a diverse range of bioactive natural products including sulfur-containing glucosinolates and other potentially valuable compounds, namely omega-3-fatty acids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, tannins, S-methyl cysteine sulfoxide, and trace-elements. Various parts of these plants and many of the molecules that are produced throughout the plant have been used in traditional medicines and more recently in the mainstream pharmaceutical and food industries. This study relates the uses of mustards in traditional medicines with their bioactive molecules and possible mechanisms of action and provides an overview of the current knowledge of Brassicaceae oilseeds and mustards, their phytochemicals, and their biological activities.

Keywords: Brassica; Brassicaceae; Calepina; Erysimum; Sinapis and Sisymbrium species; bioactive constituents; canola; glucosinolates; mustard; pharmacological activity; traditional medicine.

Figure 1

Basic structures of phenolic acids found in Brassicaceae oilseeds. Adapted from [59,209,223,224,225].

Figure 2

Enzymatic hydrolysis of progoitrin by the action of myrosinase yields the potent goitrogenic metabolite goitrin. The same reaction happens in the intestine by the action of bacterial thioglucosidases.