Mustard Oil

About Mustard Oil:
Mustard oil can mean either the pressed oil used for cooking, or a pungent essential oil also known as volatile oil of mustard. The essential oil results from grinding mustard seed, mixing the grounds with water, and isolating the resulting volatile oil by distillation. It can also be produced by dry distillation of the seed. Pressed mustard oil is used as cooking oil in some cultures, but sale is restricted in some countries due to high levels of erucic acid. Varieties of mustard seed also exist that are low in erucic acid.

History: 
Mustard oil was likely produced in the ancient Jewish town of Huqoq, in modern-day Israel. This is suggested by distinctive agricultural features found there, such as semi-circular wine vats with steep slopes and lower troughs. Scholars believe these structures, dating to Roman or Byzantine times, were used to crush mustard pods to make oil. Mustard production in Huqoq is also documented in the Jerusalem Talmud.

Pressed oil:
Oil makes up about 30% of mustard seeds. It can be produced from black mustard (Brassica nigra), brown mustard (B. juncea), and white mustard (B. alba).

Culinary use:
Having a distinctive pungent taste, the use of the oil is a feature of predominantly Punjabi Assamese, Bengali and North Indian cooking, as well as Bangladeshi cuisine. It is sometimes used as a substitute for ghee.

Chemical composition:
Its pungent flavor is due to allyl isothiocyanate, a phytochemical of plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae (for example, cabbage, horseradish or wasabi). Mustard oil has about 60% monounsaturated fatty acids (42% erucic acid and 12% oleic acid); it has about 21% polyunsaturated fats (6% the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid and 15% the omega-6 linoleic acid), and it has about 12% saturated fats.

Health effects of Erucic acid:
Main article: Erucic acid § Health Effects
Mustard oil can have upto 44% erucic acid. The potential for erucic acid to produce toxic effects in the human heart, leading to increased incidence of heart disease, has been the subject of much speculation but has not been associated with any observed heart damage in humans.Animal studies in 1970s found heart damage in rats that lead to governments worldwide moving away from oils with high levels of erucic acid,[9] but the symptoms in rats caused by a diet with high levels of erucic acid have not been observed in pigs, primates, or any other animals.

Regulation:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the import or sale of expressed mustard oil in the U.S. for use in cooking due to its high erucic acid content. By contrast, the FDA has classified essential mustard oil, which has a much lower erucic acid content, as generally recognized as safe, and allows its use in food. Expressed mustard oil is permitted in the U.S. as a massage oil, with a required “for external use only” label.

Nutritional information:
According to the USDA, 100 grams of mustard oil contains 884 calories of food energy, and is 100% fat. The fat composition is 11% saturated fat, 59% monounsaturated fat, and 21% polyunsaturated fat.