Rocket

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Rocket

Rucola

Known today as: Eruca vesicaria, salad rocket.
Kind: Plant, in 2 older authorities
Constituents: glucoerucin, erucin, erucic acid
Earliest authority here: Dioscorides (c. AD 40–90)
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 5: Vomitory Medicines

Revised October 1, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Rocket: what did Canale use it for?

Its seed among the milder vomits (ch. 5).

Rocket: what does modern science say?

Rocket seed resembles mustard seed, and a strong dose causes vomiting. Like mustard, the seed holds glucosinolates that give pungent oils; a dram of the seed would irritate the stomach enough to empty it, as Canale intends.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

glucoerucina glucosinolate
erucin ChEMBLits isothiocyanate
erucic acid ChEMBLin the seed oil

Mechanism

A mustard-oil salad: the isothiocyanates are the pungency and irritate the stomach in seed doses, Canale’s mild vomit; the aphrodisiac reputation from Roman times has no pharmacology. Erucin is studied for the same enzyme-inducing action as broccoli’s sulforaphane.

Toxic dose

A food; the seed oil is high in erucic acid, which the European Union limits in food oils.

Standing

A salad; the seed oil (taramira) is used in South Asia.

Bell, L., and Wagstaff, C. (2014). “Glucosinolates, myrosinase hydrolysis products, and flavonols found in rocket.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 62. Verified against its record · doi:10.1021/jf501096x

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

What Medicine Makes of It

Binding, Ligature, and ImpotenceThe knotted cord, and psychogenic impotence.

Rocket: what lore surrounds it?

The monks were forbidden it in some rules for its reputation; it came back to the English table in the 1990s under its Italian name, rucola, after four centuries as a weed.

Rocket: what did the older authorities say?

Dioscorides: Says the seed and the leaf of euzomon provoke lust and urine, and that it is eaten raw with lettuce to temper its heat.
Pliny and the Romans: Rocket was the aphrodisiac herb of the Roman kitchen, grown around the statues of Priapus in the gardens, and Martial and Ovid joke of it.

Sources

[54] Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal. Online edition, botanical.com, cited under the plant concerned. Read in part · the text read

Dioscorides, De materia medica II. Read in part · the text read
Pliny, Natural History XIX–XX. Primary text

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database

Sources

4 cited: 2 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 primary text. 1 with the abstract on file.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Rocket.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/rocket.
MLA: “Rocket.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/rocket. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Rocket. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/rocket

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