ABSTRACT
Glucosinolates are amino acid-derived, secondary plant products containing a sulfate and thioglucose moiety. They are a uniform class of naturally occurring hydrophilic, nonvolatile, water-soluble, anionic compounds. These group of compounds were initially called thioglucosides or mustard oil glucosides. The glucosinolates were first isolated more than a century ago. The first compound isolated was derived from white mustard seeds (Sinapis alba L.) and named sinalbin. Many of the individual substances of this class are still known by such trivial names as sinalbin and sinigrin (isolated from black mustard seeds, Brassica nigra Koch.) In a subsequent naming system adopted by Kjaer (1), the prefix gluco was attached to a part of the Latin species name from which the compound was first isolated (e.g., glucobrassicin, glucoiberin).
