Velvet bean

Velvet Bean (also known as Mucuna pruriens) is a tropical legume native to Africa and tropical Asia and widely naturalized and cultivated. Its English common names include monkey tassel, Bengal velvet bean, Florida velvet bean, Mauritius velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean, cowage, cowitch, lacuna bean, and Lyon bean.

Description[edit | edit source]

The plant is an annual, climbing shrub with long vines that can reach over 15 m in length. When the plant is young, it is almost completely covered with fuzzy hairs, but when older, it is almost completely free of hairs. The leaves are tripinnate, ovate, reverse ovate, rhombus-shaped or widely ovate. The sides of the leaves are often heavily grooved and the tips are sharp.

Cultivation and uses[edit | edit source]

In many parts of the world, Mucuna pruriens is used as an important forage, fallow and green manure crop. It has value in agricultural and horticultural use and has a range of medicinal properties.

Medicinal properties[edit | edit source]

Velvet bean has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over two thousand years and has a wide range of properties. It is used to treat Parkinson's disease, as it contains L-DOPA, a precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine. It is also used in traditional Ayurvedic Indian medicine for diseases including Parkinson's Disease, arthritis, and insomnia.

Toxicity[edit | edit source]

The plant is notorious for the extreme itchiness it can produce on contact, particularly with the young foliage and the seed pods. It has value in agricultural and horticultural use and has a range of medicinal properties.