Mustard seeds, in their various varieties, have seen use by man for thousands of years. This began perhaps in India, where it is shown that culinary dishes were using the seeds as a spice up to two thousand years ago. This subsequently spread to Europe, with France developing a taste for it in the mid ages and the Spanish carrying it in their explorations of the world. Indeed, mustard seed was so prevalent that three of the world's largest religions contain parables speaking of the mustard seed in terms of faith and wisdom.

In Buddhism, it is said that a mother came to Siddhartha with a sick son, and he told her that if she brought him mustard seeds from a family without grief or loss he could heal her child. When she could find not, she realized no family was without such hardship, and she could not selfishly expect miracles for herself. In the Quran, references show that Allah states that all will be measured on the Day of Judgment, even the equivalent of the mustard seed, as God reckons all. In the New Testament it is stated that Jesus used the mustard seed as a model for the new kingdom and his faith, speaking of how the smallest seed grows into the largest of garden plants

Today, mustard seeds are still primarily used within the culinary fields and is a popular spice for a great many of dishes, and for this they are most recognized. However numerous folk remedies do exist, primarily using mustard seeds as part of a poultice or compress for coughs, colds and other such irritations.