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Thlaspi arvense - Field pennycress

Family: Mustard - Brassicaceae [E-flora]

Habitat / Range
Mesic to dry fields and waste places in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC except rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands and adjacent mainland; introduced from Eurasia." [IFBC-E-flora] "Disturbed sites, fields; at low to middle elevations, throughout our region (but rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands and B.C.'s mid-coast)." [PCBC2004]

"Waste places and a weed of cultivated ground where it can be a serious pest[1, 13, 17]." [PFAF]
"Europe, including Britain, from Norway south and east to N. Africa, W. Asia, Siberia and Japan." [PFAF]

Origin Status: Exotic [E-flora]

"Field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) is similar to shepherd's purse, but the seedpods are large, flat, circular, and more deeply notched than cow cress. The basal leaves are toothed, but they don't resemble dandelion leaves. The plant grows up to 2 1/2 feet tall. The branched stems are smooth.... I've found this plant in overgrown fields, especially near the seashore. It flowers and bears seed from early spring through summer." [Wildman]

"Thlaspi arvense is a ANNUAL growing to 0.6 m (2ft).
It is hardy to zone (UK) 6 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to July, and the seeds ripen from Jul to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees, flies, self.The plant is self-fertile.
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil." [PFAF]

General: "Annual herb from a taproot; stems 10-50 cm tall, simple to freely branched, glabrous." [IFBC-E-flora]
Leaves: "Basal leaves few, shed early, oblanceolate, 2-6 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, sinuate to almost lyrate, narrowed to short stalks, glabrous; upper stem leaves unstalked, with earlike lobes at the bases, lanceolate to oblanceolate, toothed to wavy-margined and lobed, glabrous." [IFBC-E-flora]
Flowers: "Flower stalks widely spreading to upcurved, 7-15 mm long, slender; petals white, 3-4 mm long; sepals 1.5-2.2 mm long, glabrous." [IFBC-E-flora]
Fruits: "Silicles, oval to nearly heart-shaped, 10-17 mm long, 9-15 mm wide, strongly obcompressed, slightly notched, sinus 1.5-2.5 mm deep, wing-margined all around; beaks 0.1-0.2 mm long; seeds about 2 mm long, concentrically corrugated." [IFBC-E-flora]

"This species is also called 'stinkweed,' since the foliage emits a rank odour when crushed." [PCBC2004]

Hazards

"Dairy products and meat may be tainted if cattle graze on it; excessive grazing by livestock may also result in poisoning. " [PCBC2004]

"Stinkweed is a native of Europe and is a common annual weed of croplands and disturbed sites. Often over wintering as a low rosette, it reaches up to 0.6 m, has white flowers and distinctive round flat seedpods with a broad winged border. Cattle rarely graze it, but may consume it in hay. The seeds may be present as a contaminant of grain or screenings, but usually at a safe level. Stinkweed seeds contain high levels of glucosinolates (sinigrin) and digestion releases the irritant oil allyl thiocyanate. The oil can cause profuse swelling of the fore stomachs, mucosal necrosis and bleeding of the cecum and colon. The animals become colicky, develop bloody diarrhea and will die if the seed source is not removed. The oil is stable in the rumen (40) so it can be transferred to milk. Making silage of glucosinolate-containing forage can reduce the glycoside content by 90% (24). Heat treatment of stinkweed-containing grain can render the feed safe. A related weed of grain fields, brown mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Cosson) also contains sinigrin. In this mustard, the breakdown product in ruminants is allyl isothiocyanate (42) which causes similar symptoms in the animal but does not taint milk. Glucosinolates are present in many weeds and forages of the Cabbage family but their content is usually too low to be a health hazard." [Majak SPPWC]

"Pennycress seeds and leaves contain high glucosinolate levels that can be toxic to animals and the meal therefore cannot be used in animal feed."[Mascia PBSPEC]

Food Usage

"We have heard that the seeds and fruits have been used to flavor other food, but we cannot recommend doing so since they have caused illness when fed to cattle in hay.All in all, field pennycress is not one of our favorite edible plants. Pennycress also has an unpleasant (although not overwhelming) odor about it. [Gitksan Smith] Pod, seed and greens, raw or cooked." [Turner & Kuhnlein]

"This plant is a popular food plant in various parts of the world, often being cultivated in Europe. It is used when the shoots are young and tender." [Harrington]

"Rexford (194) stated that it is high in the vitamins C and G and contains a relatively large amount of sulfur." [Harrington]

"Whole plant, boiled in water as functional food (AB)." in Baidi Village, northwest Yunnan province, China. [Geng et al.,2016]

The T. arvense local (Zhouqu county, Gansu, China) Chinese name (pinyin) is Ku Gen Cai. The young aerial parts were among the most frequently mentioned wild foods in a freelisting questionnaire. [Kang et al.,2014]

"Flower buds used as salad garnish, or boiled and eaten with butter and parmesan cheese" (Schofield 2003) [EMNMPV.7]

Young Leaves  

"We found the young leaves tender, when used in a salad, but rather bitter tasting, so we either mixed them with those from other plants or used a strong flavored salad dressing. All in all, field pennycress is not one of our favorite edible plants." [Harrington]

"Young leaves - raw or cooked[2, 5, 52, 62, 185]. They should always be harvested before the plant comes into flower or they will be very bitter[9]. Even the young leaves have a somewhat bitter flavour and aroma, and are not to everyone's taste[9, 85]. They can be added in small quantities to salads and other foods[9, 183]. They can also be cooked in soups or used as a potherb, they taste somewhat like mustard but with a hint of onion[183]. For a leaf, it is very rich in protein[218]." [PFAF]

"The leaves are also very hot-tasting." [Wildman]

"fresh leaves are fried with vegetables, dry leaves are eaten in local soups (thug pa)" [Alessandro Boesi et al.,2014]

Seed  

"The seed is ground into a powder and used as a mustard substitute[105, 183]. The seed can be sprouted and added to salads[183]." [PFAF] "The seedpods are very pungent, and I use them instead of cayenne hot pepper whenever possible." [Wildman]

"Seeds, dried and boiled in water (AB)" in Baidi Village, northwest Yunnan province, China. [Geng et al.,2016]

Shoots  

"We boiled the shoots for 15-25 minutes and changed the water once or twice. Even then a slight bitterness is present, so we often mix the greens with those from some blander tasting plant like one of the pigweeds. (See Amaranthus species.)" [Harrington]

"The people in Litang (Tewo County, Gansu, China) also eat .... Thlaspi shoots" [Kang et al.,2016]

Other Use

Lighting Oil  

"The seed contains 20 - 30% of a semi-drying oil, it is used for lighting[74]." [PFAF]

"The seeds have oil contents of 20–36% containing ~33% erucic acid. The moderately high erucic acid content make it unsuitable as an edible oil but this adds to its potential value as a biodiesel source. Biodiesel (methyl esters) prepared from pennycress oil is reported to have a CN value of 59.8, i.e. well above that of regular canola oil (Table 8.3)." [Mascia PBSPEC]

"seeds pressed for temple oil" in (Tewo County, Gansu, China)[Kang et al.,2016]

Medicinal Use

"Antirheumatic, diuretic[46, 61]." [PFAF]

"Both the seed and the young shoots are said to be good for the eyes[218]." [PFAF]

Plant  

"The entire plant is antidote, anti-inflammatory, blood tonic, depurative, diaphoretic, expectorant, febrifuge and hepatic[176, 218]. It is used in the treatment of carbuncles, acute appendicitis, intestinal abscess, post-partum pain, dysmenorrhoea and endometriosis[176]. Use with caution since large doses can cause a decrease in white blood cells, nausea and dizziness[176]. The plant has a broad antibacterial activity[218], effective against the growth of Staphylococci and streptococci[176]." [PFAF]

Seed  

"The seeds are used in Tibetan medicine and are considered to have an acrid taste and a cooling potency[241]. They are anti-inflammatory and febrifuge, being used in the treatment of pus in the lungs, renal inflammation, appendicitis, seminal and vaginal discharges[241]." [PFAF]

"The seed is a tonic[218]." [PFAF]

[CRNAH]

"Boor's Mustard Seed It is the seed of Thlaspi arvense L. (Cruciferae ). Effect. Enhancing acuity of vision. Indication. Conjunctive congestion with swelling, pain, and shed tears." [xinrong tcm]

Thlaspi arvense L. - Jin Moa - "(aerial part) Sinigrin, fatty acids, essential oil, myrocin, myrosinase.48" - "For ophthalmia, lumbago, an antidote, antipyretic, improves circulation, diaphoretic." [CRNAH]

Thlaspi arvense L. - N.A. - "Amine choline, acetylcholine, bursine, histamine, flavonoids, polypeptides, tyramine.99,102" - "Control internal bleeding, profuse menstruation." [CRNAH]

Nutritional Information

Figures in grams (g) or miligrams (mg) per 100g of food.
Leaves (Dry weight)

[Turner&Kuhnlein]

"The oil content of field pennycress seeds was 29.0 wt%, respectively. The primary fatty acids found in field pennycress oil was principally composed of erucic (32.8 wt%) and linoleic (22.4 wt%) acids. a-tocopherol (714 ppm) was the primary tocopherol discovered in field pennycress oil. The overall tocopherol concentrations of field pennycress oils were 851 ppm. The primary phytosterols elucidated in field pennycress oils were sitosterol and campesterol. The total phytosterol concentration in field pennycress was (8.55 mg/g) oil. Field pennycress oil exhibited excellent low temperature fluidity. Excellent lubrication properties." [Moser et al.]

Pharmacology

"Extracts of the Chinese ethnomedicinal plants Arnebia euchroma, Thlaspi arvense, and Poncirus trifoliata (Table 15.1) displayed strong anti-HCV activities [37]..." [ModPhyt]

Cultivation

"An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils. Dislikes shade." [PFAF]

"Temperature effects. Cold temperatures are required for the germination of certain seeds (stratification) and for flowering in certain species (vernalization).... For example, a prolonged cold treatment is required for both the stem elongation and the flowering of Thlaspi arvense (field pennycress), and gibberellins can substitute for the cold treatment." [Zeiger PP]

Propagation

"Seed - sow in situ in March or April." [PFAF]

"Pennycress is an important weed of grain, canola and forage fields in cool temperate areas of the world such as the northern prairies in North America (Moser et al. 2009). Fields heavily infested with pennycress have been reported to produce seed yields as much as 1,345 kg/ha with few inputs and wild population yields are reported to produce 1,120–2,240 kg/ha. Application of modern breeding to pennycress improvement should increase seed yields readily. This weed might be able to be turned into industrial oilseed crop and grown as a winter annual double cropped with corn or soybeans." [Mascia PBSPEC]

References

THLASPI PENNYCRESS

"Annual, scented when crushed; hairs simple or 0. Leaf: basal entire to dentate, petioled; cauline sessile, base lobed. Flower: sepals erect to ascending, base not sac-like; petals white, claw short or 0. Fruit: silicle, dehiscent, oblong, obcordate, obovate, or round, flat perpendicular to septum, unsegmented, tip notched; valves keeled, generally winged; stigma entire. Seed: 6–16 in 1 row, wingless.
6 species: Eurasia, northern Africa. (Greek: to crush, shield, from flat, shield-like fruit) [Koch & Al-Shehbaz 2004 Syst Bot 29:375–384] Other taxa in TJM (1993) moved to Noccaea." [Jepson]

Local Species;

  1. Thlaspi arvense - field pennycress [E-flora]

Uses of Other Thlaspi Sp.

Food Use

"Related Species: We have some native species related to field pennycress, but they are smaller plants and would be difficult to gather in suffi- cient quantity. (ThlasPi alpestre). " [Harrington]

Thlaspi perfoliatum L. - aboveground part used, in western and central Anatolia (Turkey), as a meal, salad, and pie. [Dogan,2004]

Other Use

Thlaspi andersonii (Hook. f., & Thomson) O. E. Schulz - leaves used as fodder (Samant et al., 2007) [Pullaiah EOI]

Phytochemicals

Thlaspi perfoliatum L. Family: Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) Seed Mass of 1,000, g: 0.4 Oil, % on dry wt: 31.0 nD40: 1.4663 Iodine value, % J2: 98.0 FAs (GLC, 20% Apiezon L), %: 16:0 – 4.0; 18:0 – 0.8; 18:1 – 14.0; 18:2 – 20.0; 18:3 – 5.0; 20:1 – 7.0; 20:2 – 0.7; 22:1 – 29.0; 24:1 – 19.0; others – 0.2 [LLCEOPS]

Thlaspi alpestre L. Family: Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) Seed Mass of 1,000, g: 0.4[1] Oil, % on dry wt: 30 [1] nD40: 1.4673 [1] Iodine value, % J2: 112.0 [1] FAs (GLC, 20% Apiezon L), %: 16:0 – 4.0; 18:0 – 1.0; 18:1 – 8.0; 18:2 – 15.0; 18:3 – 14.0; 20:0 – 1.0; 20:1 – 12.0; 20:2 – 2.0; 22:0 – 1.0; 22:1 – 38.0; 24:1 – 2.0; others – 1.7 [1] (GLC, BDS), %: 16:0 – 2.3; 18:0 – 0.1; 18:1 – 7.2; 18:2 – 22.2; 18:3 – 13.5; 20:1 – 9.8; 22:1 – 40.4; 24:1 – 2.3; others – 2.2 [2][LLCEOPS]

Metal Accumulator

"Approximately 25% of known hyperaccumulators are reported from the Brassicaceae family, particularly from genera Thlaspi alyssum. Brassicaceae also includes the highest number of Ni-accumulating plants (Brooks, 1998). In comparison with Ni, Zn hyperaccumulators are less frequent in Brassicaceae and Crassulaceae (Yang et al., 2004), which includes species of Arabidopsis, Thlaspi, and Sedum alfredii. These species also accumulate Cd." [Kumar,2016]

T. caerulescens shown to hyperaccumulate many heavy metals. Zn, Ni, Co, Mn and Cd could all be accumulated to high concentrations in the leaves when these elements were supplied as low-concentration amendments to standard nutrient solution. Other elements, such as Pb, Cu, Fe, Al and Cr were accumulated strongly in the roots, but not readily translocated to the shoots. There was no mention of T. arvense, but several members of the genus Thlaspi have shown this ability. [Reeves]
Thlaspi caerulescens is a known Zn hyperaccumulator, but its use in the field is limited because individual plants are very small and slow growing (Ebbs and Kochian, 1997). [Pulford et al.]

"Some metallophytes have a specialization to concentrate elements at levels that would be toxic to non- accumulators. This innate ability to hyperaccumulate trace elements in plant leaves has been observed in species that grow naturally on metal-rich substrates (Brooks et al. 1977; Baker and Brooks 1989; Wenzel and Jockwer 1999), but the trace element accumulation potential in hyperaccumulators may not be solely a matter of their habitat, when Thlaspi caerulescens was subjected to amended substrates ecotypes originating from low-metal soils accumulated more than ecotypes originating from metalliferous soils (Escarré et al. 2000; Dechamps et al. 2005). Clearly hyper- accumulators collect large quantities of soil trace elements and sequester them in their leaves, yet we do not have a clear understanding of the ways roots achieve this." [alford,2010]

"...it was shown that populations of Thlaspi caerulescens grown in pots amended with ZnS accumulated more Zn in their shoots than the calculated total water and ammonium-nitrate extractable Zn in pots, indicating that the plants were accessing less available pools of Zn (Whiting et al. 2001d). Non-hyperaccumulators were not used in this study, so we cannot know whether or not these findings are indeed unique to hyperaccumulators, but due to the lack of high Zn accumulation in the ZnS treatment compared to the other Zn treatments, the mobilizing ability of these plants may not be very strong (Whiting et al. 2001d)." [alford,2010]

"Another study found that the mobile Zn fraction in soil accounted for less than 10% of Zn within shoots in a Thlaspi caerulescens, while a related non- hyperaccumulator obtained 55% of shoot Zn from the mobile fraction (McGrath et al. 1997)." [alford,2010]

"Root exudation should be examined further because it may play a key role in metal solubilization. For example, root exduates (and/ or microbial activity) were proposed to be an integral part of Ni accumulation in Thlaspi goesingense where organic acids may participate in dissolution of Ni- bearing mineral surfaces (Puschenreiter et al. 2005)." [alford,2010]

"Higher resistance to Cd and Zn was found in rhizosphere bacteria and fungi isolated from Thlaspi caerulescens than from a non-hyperaccumulator, even though the hyper- accumulator had fewer rhizosphere microorganisms overall (Delorme et al. 2001)." [alford,2010]

"Another variable playing a role in accumulation and plant allocation patterns is the translocation factor between roots and shoots in mycorrhizal plants. This type of effect has been observed with Cd and Zn in Thlaspi praecox where the shoot/root translocation factor was higher in mycorrhizal plants (Vogel-Mikuš et al. 2006) and in Pteris vittata where the As translocation factor in- creased at least five times in inoculated plants (Trotta et al. 2006), however this did not increase the concentra- tion of those elements in plants." [alford,2010]

"For well over 100 years it has been recognized that certain Zn-rich soils in Western Germany and Eastern Belgium are characterized by the presence of an unusual plant community: the so-called Zn flora or "Calmer flora. Two of the best known species among this community are Viola calaminaria and Thlaspi calaminare. A notable feature of the latter is its unusual ability to hyperaccumulate both Ni and Zn (see above). Baumann (1885) first reported Zn concentrations of around 1% in dried leaves of T. calaminare. Early observations on hyperaccumulation of Zn by this species were made by Linstow (1924), and later by Ernst (1967)." [Baker,1989]

"The hyperaccumulators should be vigorous herbaceous perennial plant with a high rate of biomass production and with broad ecological amplitude, especially in disturbed areas. For example, Thlaspi caerulescens was identified as a hyperaccumulator of Zn and Cd due to more 40,000 mg Zn kg-1 accumulated in shoots in some of its ecotypes; however, the slow growth rate and small size is a great limitation for phytoremediation. Recent evidence suggests that moderately accumulating high-biomass species such as Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) can accumulate four times more Zn than T. caerulescens (Purakayastha and Chlonkar 2010)." [Bini&Bech,2014] "Ebbs et al. (1997) reported that B. juncea, while having one-third the concentration of Zn in its tissue, is more effective at removing Zn from soil than Thlaspi caerulescens, a known hyperaccumulator of Zn. The advantage is due primarily to the fact that B. juncea produces ten-times more biomass than T. caerulescens." [Padmavathiamma,2007]

"XAS has also been used to study nickel phytoremediation and its localization and speciation within Thlaspi species [102,103]. In an investigation by Persans et al. [102], the role of histidine in Ni uptake by T. geosingense, a Ni hyperaccumulator, and T. arvense, a Ni non-hyperaccumulator, was studied. The XAS study on these plants showed that there were no major differences between the Ni coordination by histidine in the tissues. They concluded that the Ni hyperaccumulating phenotype did not show an over production of histidine in response to Ni exposure. However, the authors observed that the histidine concentration in the xylem and the shoot remained unchanged in the hyperaccumulator plant after Ni exposure. In addition, histidine concentrations in roots dropped to the levels observed in non-exposed non-hyperaccumulating species. Kramer et al. [103] have studied the subcellular localization and speciation of Ni in hyperaccumulating and non-hyperaccumulating Thlaspi species using XAS. Through this technique, the authors were able to identify the functional groups to which Ni was coordinated to within the Thlaspi species. The study indicated that the majority of the Ni within the leaves was coordinated to the cell walls and the remainder of the Ni was associated with citrate and histidine complexes." [Gardea-Torresdey et al.]

"Upon Cd exposure, Nicotiana tabaccum hairy roots had 5 times more reactive oxygen species (ROS) than T. caerulescens hairy roots (Boominathan and Doran 2003a). As GSH has been shown to act as an antioxidant in other species, it was hypothesized that increased GSH synthesis might account for increased tolerance in T. caerulescens. However, exposure to the GSH synthesis inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) did not significantly affect ROS levels in T. caerulescens compared to controls, suggesting that GSH was not required for Cd tolerance in T. caerulescens (Boominathan and Doran 2003). Thlaspi caerulescens has constitu- tively high levels of antioxidant enzyme activity like catalase, 300-fold higher than N. tabaccum (Boominathan and Doran 2003), therefore, this may contribute to Cd tolerance. While Cd treatment does not induce phytochelatin (PC) synthesis in non-tolerant plants like A. thaliana, most metal tolerant plants do not accumu- late phytochelatin-metal complexes in response to metal toxicity (Cobbett and Goldsbrough 2002). Although T. caerulescens and T. arvense had increased PCs following Cd treatment, total PCs were lower in the hyperaccumulator T. caerulescens, and PC levels did not correlate with increased tolerance in this plant (Ebbs et al. 2002)" [Peer,2006]

"Metal concentrations in the shoots of hyperaccumulators normally exceed those in the roots, and it has been suggested that metal hyperaccumulation has the ecological role of providing protection against fungal and insect attack (Chaney et al.,1997). Such plants are endemic to areas of natural miner- alisation and mine spoils (Brooks, 1998). Examples include species of Thlaspi (Brassicaceae), which can accumulate more than 3% Zn, 0.5% Pb and 0.1% Cd in their shoots (Baker et al., 1991; Brown et al., 1994)" [Pulford&Watson,2003]M

"The transport sys- tem involved in xylem loading of Ni–His complexes occurring in hyperaccumulator roots, has not yet been elucidated. Compara- tive analyses between the Ni hyperaccumulator Thlaspi goesingense and the non-hyperaccumulator T. arvense have revealed that, under non-toxic conditions, both species display similar root-to-shoot Ni transport rates [81]. The authors conclude that the hyperaccu- mulation ability of T. goesingense depends on a very efficient Ni detoxification and/or sequestration mechanisms, much more than on enhanced heavy metal translocation." [Rascio,2011]

"Heavy metal tolerance is often correlated with intracellular compartmentali- zation (Brune et al. 1995). Nickel hyperaccumulation is usually due to a highly efficient pumping system that transfers the metal to the central vacuole of the shoot cells, leading to a high level of tolerance to this element (Krämer et al. 2000), but it is clear that a substantial amount of cellular Ni also accumulates outside the vacuole, suggesting the existence of a cytoplasmic-based tolerance mechanism. Due to the constitutively enhanced activity of serine acetyl transferase, the glu- tathione concentration in hyperaccumulating Thlaspi plants is also constitutively elevated, leading to enhanced tolerance to Ni-induced oxidative stress (Freeman et al. 2004). In a later experiment it was also proved that the glutathione-mediated Ni tolerance mechanism observed in Ni-hyperaccumulating Thlaspi species is signalled by the constitutively elevated levels of SA. It was also observed that both biochemical and genetic manipulations that increase SA in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh plants mimic the glutathione-related phenotypes of the hyperaccu- mulating Thlaspi, and that these biochemical changes in the non-accumulator are associated with increased glutathione-mediated Ni resistance. Such observations suggest that SA may be one of the regulators involved in coordinating certain key biochemical differences between Ni/Zn hyperaccumulators and non-accumulator plant species." [Hayat SAPGD]

References

Journals of Interest

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