Brassica juncea

Brassica Juncea

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Brassica juncea

Brassica juncea, also known as mustard greens, Indian mustard and leaf mustard, is a species of mustard plant

Mustard plant

Mustards are several plant species in the genera Brassica and Sinapis whose small mustard seeds are used as a spice and, by grinding and mixing them with water, vinegar or other liquids, are turned into the condiment known as Mustard ....
. Sub-varieties include Southern Giant Curled Mustard, which resembles a headless cabbage such as Kale

Kale

Kale or Borecole is a form of cabbage , green in color, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms....
, but with a distinct horseradish-mustard flavor. It is also known as green mustard cabbage.

leaves, the seeds, and the stem of this mustard variety are edible.

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Encyclopedia

Brassica juncea, also known as mustard greens, Indian mustard and leaf mustard, is a species of mustard plant

Mustard plant

Kale

Uses

Food

The leaves, the seeds, and the stem of this mustard variety are edible. The plant appears in some form in African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Soul food

Soul food

Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, and is the traditional cuisine of African-Americans of the Southern United States and of black communities beyond....
cuisine. Cultivars of B. juncea are grown as greens, and for the production of oilseed. The leaves are used in African cooking, and leaves, seeds, and stems are used in Indian cuisine

Indian cuisine

The cuisine of India is characterized by its sophisticated and subtle use of many spices and vegetables grown across India and also for the widespread practice of vegetarianism across its society....
. B. juncea subsp. tatsai which has a particularly thick stem, is used to make the Indian pickle

Indian pickle

Indian pickles are a variety of spicy pickled side dishes or condiments popular in the Indian Subcontinent, in Southeast Asia, and in many other areas among ethnically South Asian communities....
called Achar , and the Chinese pickle

Pickling

Pickling, also known as brining or corning, is the process of preserving food by Anaerobic organism fermentation in brine , to produce lactic acid bacteria, or marination and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar ....
zha cai
Zha cai

Zha cai is a type of Pickling mustard stem originating from Sichuan, China. Other transliterations might include cha tsai, tsa tsai ; or jar choy, jar choi, ja choi, ja choy, or cha tsoi ....
. The mustard made from the seeds of the Brassica juncea is called brown mustard. The leaves (Raai / Rai in Gujarati) are used in many Indian dishes.

Brassica juncea is more pungent than the closely-related Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea

Brassica oleracea or Wild Mustard, is a species of Brassica native to coastal southern and western Europe, where its tolerance of sodium chloride and calcium carbonate and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone sea cliffs....
greens (kale

Kale

Cabbage

The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
, collard greens

Collard greens

Collards are various loose-leafed cultivars of Brassica oleracea , the same species that produces cabbage and broccoli. The plant is grown for its large, dark-colored, greens and as a garden ornamental, mainly in Brazil, Portugal, the Southern United States, many parts of Africa, Montenegro, Spain and in Kashmir....
, et cetera) and is frequently mixed with these milder greens in a dish of "mixed greens", which may include wild greens such as dandelion. As with other greens in soul food cooking, mustard greens are generally flavored by being cooked for a long period with ham hock

Ham hock

A ham hock is the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot, where the foot was attached to the hog's leg. It is the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the foot or ankle, but rather the extreme Shank end of the leg bone and the associated skin, fat, tendons, and muscle....
s or other smoked pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig . The word, pork, is often meant to denote specifically the fresh meat of the pig, but it can be used as an all-inclusive term, to include cured, smoked, or processed meats It is one of the most-commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry dating back...
products. Mustard greens are high in Vitamin A

Vitamin A

Vitamin A, a bi-polar molecule formed with bi-polar covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen, is linked to a family of similarly shaped molecules, the retinoids, which complete the remainder of the vitamin sequence....
and Vitamin K

Vitamin K

Vitamin K denotes a group of lipophilic, hydrophobic vitamins that are needed for the posttranslational modification of certain proteins, mostly required for blood coagulation....
.

Chinese and Japanese cuisines also make use of mustard greens. A large variety of B. juncea cultivars are used including zha cai
Zha cai

Zha cai is a type of Pickling mustard stem originating from Sichuan, China. Other transliterations might include cha tsai, tsa tsai ; or jar choy, jar choi, ja choi, ja choy, or cha tsoi ....
(tatsoi), mizuna, takana (var. integlofolia), juk gai choy, and xuelihong (??? or ???). Asian mustard greens are most often stir-fried or pickled. A Southeast Asian dish called asam gai choy or kiam chai boey is often made with leftovers from a large meal. It involves stewing mustard greens with tamarind

Tamarind

The Tamarind is a tree in the rank Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic . It is a tropical tree, native to tropical Africa, including Sudan and parts of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests....
, dried chillies and leftover meat on the bone.

Food supplement

B. juncea can hyperaccumulate

Phytoremediation

Phytoremediation describes the treatment of natural environmental problems through the use of plants.The word's etymology comes from the Greek f?t? = plant, and Latin ? remedium ? = restoring balance, or remediating....
cadmium

Cadmium

Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. A relatively abundant , soft, bluish-white, transition metal, cadmium is known to cause cancer and occurs with zinc ores....
and many other soil trace elements. Specially cultured, it can be used as a selenium

Selenium

Selenium is a chemical element with the atomic number 34, represented by the chemical symbol Se, an atomic mass of 78.96. It is a nonmetal, chemically related to sulfur and tellurium, and rarely occurs in its elemental state in nature....
, chromium

Chromium

Chromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is a steely-gray, Lustre , hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point....
, iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
and zinc

Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....
food supplement.

Green manure

Vegetable growers sometimes grow mustard as a green manure

Green manure

In agriculture, a green manure is a type of cover crop grown primarily to add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Typically, a green manure crop is grown for a specific period, and then plowed under and incorporated into the soil....
. Its main purpose is to act as a mulch

Mulch

In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil, primarily to modify the effects of the local climate. A wide variety of nature and Synthetic fiber materials are used....
, covering the soil to suppress weeds between crops. If grown as a green manure, the mustard plants are cut down at the base when sufficiently grown, and left to wither on the surface, continuing to act as a mulch until the next crop is due for sowing, when the mustard is dug in. In the UK, summer and autumn-sown mustard is cut down from October. April sowings can be cut down in June, keeping the ground clear for summer-sown crops. One of the disadvantages of mustard as a green manure is its propensity to harbor club root.

Phytoremediation

This plant is used to remove heavy metals from the soil in hazardous waste sites because it has a higher tolerance for these substances and stores the heavy metals in its cells. The plant is then harvested and disposed of properly. This method is easier and less expensive than traditional methods for the removal of heavy metals.It also prevents erosion of soil from these sites preventing further contamination.

Brassica juncea

Uses

Food

Food supplement

Green manure

Phytoremediation

Further reading

See also

External links