Name - कपिकच्छुः
Botanical name - Mucuna pruriens
Description - Mucuna pruriens is annual twines, branched, slender, more or less heavy at first. Leaves 3 foliate, appressedly silky. Leaf lets unequal at the base, terminal leaflets slightly smallers. Purple coloured flowers in elongate 6-30 flowered recemes 6-12 in, long, solitary flowers. Fruits turgid pods, with a longitudinal rib running the length of each value, not winged on the margins, falcately curved on both ends, some what like the letters, densely clothed with persistent irritant bristles, which are at first pale-brown, afterwards steel-gray. Small seeds. 5-6
Chemical Constituents- It contains L-dopa, manganese, among other chemicals Seeds contain lecithin, glucoside, a number of alkaloids including nicotine, prurieninine, prurienidine. Seed kernel contains fatty-oil. Trichomes contain proteinase mucunain. Hairs contain serotonin. Seeds contain an oil and alkaloids mucunine and mucunadine
Use - Roots tonic, stimulant, diuretic, purgative, emmenagogue, used for diseases of nervous system, renal affections and dropsy. Ointment from root used in elephantiasis. It acts as a stimulant for brain as well as for reproductory organs. seed is nutritious given in old age disorders like parkinsonisum, tremors, osteoporosis etc. Seeds are aphrodisiac, Nervine tonic and anthelmintic. Roots are purgative. A paste is applied in dropsy. An infusion is given with Honey in cholera.
