Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Mustard Oil
I bought some mustard oil the other day and I have never used it before. Why does it say for external use only on the bottle?
Sid.
Because some people apply it on their scalp / skin. If it has no additives it should be good for cooking. Fish curry cooked in mustard oil is fantastic.
it is because of early fears that the erucic acid content of the oil produced problems in humans.
Mustard oil was once considered unsuitable for human consumption in the United States, Canada, and the European Union due to the high content of erucic acid. This is because of early studies in rats.
Subsequent studies on rats have shown that they are less able to digest vegetable fats (whether they contain erucic acid or not) than humans and pigs.
Chariton et al. suggests that in rats:?Inefficient activation of erucic acid to erucyl-CoA and a low level of activity of triglyceride lipase and enzymes of betaoxidation for erucic acid probably contribute to the accumulation and retention of cardiac lipid.? Before this process was fully understood it led to the belief that erucic acid and mustard oil were both highly toxic to humans.
It is interesting to note that 'Lorenzo's oil' contains 80% erucic acid, if anyone has seen the film of that name, and I recommend it (the film). The man who separated out the original oil ( a chemist from Croda Chemicals) played himself in the film!! [He could have used mustard oil to the same end!!]