The seeds of brown mustard-Brassica juncea (BJ) and yellow mustard-Brassica campestris (BC) are principally valued as sources of edible oil and also as condiments. Additionally, the seeds are an important source of antioxidant melatonin (MT) which reportedly has significant anti-cancer, hypoglycaemic (Paul et al., 2021), and hypocholesterolemic properties (Chakraborty & Bhattacharjee, 2017; Li et al., 2017). However, consumption of whole seeds of BJ and BC for the realization of the benefits of the aforementioned biotherapeutic molecule is limited by their high Scoville heat units (SHU) which render strong pungency even to cooked mustard seeds. Additionally, these seeds possess erucic acid as the predominant fatty acid (Chakraborty & Bhattacharjee, 2020) which could be harmful for human consumption. The current investigation, therefore, aimed to obtain MT-rich extracts from BJ and BC seeds for their safe end uses as antioxidant-rich nutraceutical supplements.
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