mustard plaster

Med a mixture of powdered black mustard seeds and an adhesive agent applied to the skin for its relaxing, stimulating, or counterirritant effects

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mustard Plaster

a sheet of thick paper covered with a thin layer of defatted, dried, and powdered seeds of black or Indian mustard. Its active ingredients are the volatile mustard oil and the phytoncides released when water reacts with the enzyme myrosin, which is contained in mustard. Mustard plasters are used as irritants and revulsants in the treatment of bronchitis, lung inflammations, and muscular pains.

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References in periodicals archive

Applied to the naked chest, the mustard plaster had come down through the ages as possessing the magic to draw out through the pores the germs that caused pneumonia, TB, lung infections, and stuff like that.

Health hazards of early boyhood

I've heard similar things from other immigrant families who, like ours, relied on home cures - garlic, mustard plasters and herbal teas - rather than some fancy MD for relief.

Who are you kidding? Go see the doctor

Food retailers must sell more than simple mustard plasters and alcohol rubs to satisfy today's shoppers looking for topical pain relief.

Pain on the Shelf

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