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Hedge mustard is an annual plant belonging to the cabbage family (Brassicaceae). It can be found growing wild in most of Europe, south-west Asia and North Africa, and it has been introduced to both North and South America, South Africa and Australia. The fresh leaves can be eaten raw or cooked and used in salads, soups, sauces and omelettes. Hedge mustard also has a long history for its medicinal uses such as for treating hoarseness or a complete loss of voice, and for this reason was sometimes called the singers’ plant. It is also known to have been used for treating the common cold, gall bladder ailments, jaundice, pleurisy, sciatica and ulcers. The fresh mashed herb was used externally as a remedy for gout and rheumatic ailments and because the herb is rich in vitamin C it was used to keep scurvy at bay, and also as a diuretic agent. See > Link for a wider view.

Pedanius Dioscorides (~40-90AD), a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances widely read for more than 1,500 years and a medic in the Roman army, called this plant 'erysimon' and recommended that is should be used together with honey as an antidote in case of poisoning.