pungent in taste and digestion, strong and heat-making in its potency. It gives rise to a condition of parchedness in the system, and diminishes the Vayu and the Kapham. An excessive and continuous use of white mustard may bring on an attack of haemoptysis. The properties of red mustard seeds are similar to those of the white species.
A crop of Dhanyam grown in an unnatural season, or in any way diseased or blighted, or gleaned before it has ripened, as well as the one raised from a soil naturally uncongenial to its growth, or recently harvested, should be deemed to be of inferior quality.
The use of new (harvested within a year) rice tends to increase the secretions of the internal organs, while that of a year's maturity is light.*[1]
Rice threshed out of paddy, which has commenced sprouting, is heavy, and is long retained in the stomach. It can be but imperfectly digested and tends to affect the organ of vision.
The maturity, preparations (Sanskara), and measures of corn from Shali rice to mustard seeds described in the present Chapter are as follows:—[Rice of two years standing should be regarded as well matured in time and excellent in quality. A thing, which is hard to
- ↑ *Rice of more than two years standing becomes divested of all its nutritive elements.
