# Hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale) *Singer’s plant, French *herbe aux chantres*; *Herba Erysimi*; *Sisymbrium officinale* (L.) Scop. (*Erysimum officinale* L.); perhaps the *erusimon* of Dioscorides; in pharmacy *Sisymbrii officinalis herba** **Known today as.** *Sisymbrium officinale*, an annual of the family Brassicaceae, of Eurasian origin, growing by ways and hedge-sides. Culpeper describes one blackish-green stalk, “tough, easy to bend, but not to break,” rough leaves much cut on the edges, small yellow flowers in long spikes, and small round pods held upright and close to the stalk. King’s Dispensatory calls it “an unsightly weed” whose taste faintly resembles mustard, the seeds the most pungent part. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** The European agency advises consulting a doctor at once if breathlessness, fever, or purulent sputum appears; it does not recommend lozenges under six, nor oral preparations under three, nor use in pregnancy or breast-feeding, for lack of data. The flowering tops contain cardiac glycosides (cardenolides), and the monograph limits them to no more than 1 part per million in preparations; at that limit the committee calculated the daily amount to be far below the smallest therapeutic dose of strophanthin. No adverse effects were reported from the markets of the member states. ## What was it used for? A remedy for the voice and the chest. Culpeper calls it “singularly good in all the diseases of the chest and lungs, hoarseness of voice,” adding that by its decoction “those have been recovered who had utterly lost their voice, and almost their spirits also,” and that its juice in a syrup with honey or sugar served for coughs, wheezing, and shortness of breath. King’s Dispensatory gives it as reputed expectorant, used to advantage “in hoarseness, old coughs, asthma,” and ulcerated throat. ## What does modern science say? The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the herb as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the relief of the symptoms of throat irritation such as hoarseness and dry cough (monograph of 2014). Its assessment report finds 0.6 to 0.9 per cent of glucosinolates in the dried flowering tops, chiefly sinigrin and gluconapin in the fresh plant, with 11 to 13.5 per cent of mucilages; their breakdown yields mainly isothiocyanates, sulphur compounds also found in mustard oil, and older authors credited the plant’s action to such compounds stimulating secretion in the upper airways. The assessment report found no clinical studies of hedge mustard in the literature. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **sinigrin**: chief of the glucosinolates, 0.6 to 0.9 per cent of the dried flowering tops, with gluconapin - **gluconapin**: - **isothiocyanates**: the main breakdown products - **cardenolides**: cardiac glycosides, limited by the monograph to 1 part per million in preparations **Mechanism.** Older authors credited its action to the isothiocyanates stimulating secretion in the upper airways; the assessment report found no clinical studies. **Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2014): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for throat irritation such as hoarseness and dry cough. ## What lore surrounds it? The name Singer’s plant comes from use, by the European Medicines Agency’s account: the second edition of Hager’s Handbuch (1949) recommends *Herba Erisimi* for hoarseness and records that singers drank it as a tea before performances. Folkard tells the same name’s story, though under the plant he calls *Erysimum Barbarea*: up to the time of Louis XIV it was held an infallible remedy for loss of voice, and Racine wrote to Boileau recommending the syrup of erysimum when Boileau went to the waters of Bourbonne to be cured of losing his voice. ## What did the older authorities say? **Culpeper, *The Complete Herbal* (1653).** Mars owns this herb. Beyond the chest, Culpeper found it profitable for jaundice, pleurisy, pains in the back and loins, and colic, given also in clysters, and good for sciatica, aching joints, cankers in the mouth and throat, and swelling of the breasts; “The seed is held to be a special remedy against poison and venom.” **Dioscorides, *De materia medica* 2.188.** His *erusimon*, which the modern translators identify, among several suggestions, with hedge mustard, grows about towns, yards, and gardens, with a stalk “pliable and flexible like a rein” and yellowish flowers; its burning seeds, licked in with honey, served for discharges of the chest, coughs, jaundice, and sciatica. ## Sources - Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “The Hedge-Mustard.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. - Dioscorides. *De materia medica*, 2-188, in the modern English version of T. A. Osbaldeston and R. P. A. Wood (Johannesburg: Ibidis, 2000), after Goodyer’s translation of 1655. Internet Archive. - Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). *King’s American Dispensatory*, vol. 2, “Sisymbrium.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. - Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Erysimum.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Sisymbrii officinalis herba (Hedge mustard)*. EMA/HMPC/280193/2013, 30 September 2014. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Sisymbrii officinalis herba*. EMA/HMPC/280194/2013, 30 September 2014. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Sisymbrii officinalis herba (Hedge mustard)*. EMA/HMPC/280193/2013, 30 September 2014. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Sisymbrii officinalis herba*. EMA/HMPC/280194/2013, 30 September 2014. --- *Hedge mustard.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/hedge-mustard Historical description, not medical advice.