Mustard oil has strong sinus irritating aroma which is similar to horseradish, a hot nutty taste and is mostly used for cooking in different parts of India. Indians use is for cooking different dishes and it is the most traditionally used oil in India and Nepal. The oil makes up of around 30% of mustard seeds. It can be made from black mustard, brown Indian mustard, and white mustard. The Mustard oil is known to contain the pungent Allyl isothiocyanate and has about 605 monounsaturated fatty acids of which 42% erucic acid and 12% oleic acid, it has 21% polyunsaturates of which 6% is the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid and 15% omega-6 linoleic acid and it has 12% saturated fats.

The Mustard seeds, like all seeds from the Brassica family, including canola and turnip, have high levels of omega-3 and are a common, cheap, mass-produced source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids .Flax oil has 55% plant-based omega-3 but is uncommon as cooking oil. Soybean oil has 6% omega-3 but contains over 50% omega-6, the fatty acid that competes with the omega-3 function. Other than rapeseed and mustard oils, there are few other common sources of plant based omega-3 in Western and Indian diets. Especially when omega-6 intake is kept low, humans can convert the plant omega-3 into one of the fish omega-3s,eicosapentaenoic acid, in limited amounts, a useful source for vegetarians.

In India, mustard oil is mostly heated almost to smoking before it is used for cooking; this may be an attempt to reduce the strong smell and taste. However, high heat can damage the omega-3 in the oil, reducing its unique role in health. In Western countries, the oil is often sold “for external use only” in stores catering to Indian immigrants, since in North India, mustard oil is also used for rub-downs and massages , thought to improve blood circulation, muscular development and skin texture; the oil is also antibacterial. The effects of the erucic acid from the edible oils on human health are controversial. However there is no negative health effect been documented in humans.

Mustard oil was considered unsuitable for human consumption in the United States, Canada, and the European Union due to high content of erucic acid. This is because of the early studies in rats. Subsequently the studies have shown that they are less able to digest vegetable than humans. Before this process was understood it led to belief that erucic acid and mustard oil were both highly toxic to the humans.

Epidemiological studies suggest that, in regions where mustard oil is still used in a traditional manner, mustard oil may afford some protection against cardiovascular diseases. In this sense “traditional” means that the oil is used fresh and vegetable fats count only as a small percentage of the total caloric intake. Whether this effect is due to the nature of erucic acid per se to make the blood platelets less sticky. Care needs to be taken with such epidemiological studies in order to exclude the possibility of early deaths from other causes skewing the results. The fact that early asymptomatic coronary disease is readily detectable post mortem and is absent in the mustard oil cohorts tends to add weight to the hypothesis that mustard oil is protective.

The use of mustard oils in traditional societies for infant massage has been identified as risking damaging skin integrity and permeability. Many Other studies over larger samples have shown that massaging with mustard oil improves weight, length, and midarm and midleg circumferences as compared to infants without massage, although sesame oil is a better candidate for this than mustard oil.

Because of the contained allyl isothiocyanate, this type of mustard oil is toxic and irritates the skin and mucous membranes. In very small amounts, it is often used by the food industry for flavoring. In northern Italy, for instance, it is used in the fruit condiment called mostarda. It is also used to repel cats and dogs. It will also denature alcohol, making it unfit for human consumption, thus avoiding the taxes collected on alcoholic beverages.

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jenny