Mucuna

Mucuna is a genus of around 114 accepted species of climbing lianas (vines) and shrubs of the family Fabaceae: tribe Phaseoleae, typically found in tropical and subtropical forests in the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia, New Guinea, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.
The leaves are trifoliolate, alternate, or spiraled, and the flowers are pea-like but larger, with distinctive curved petals, and occurring in racemes. Like other legumes, Mucuna plants bear pods. They are generally bat-pollinated and produce seeds that are buoyant sea-beans. These have a characteristic three-layered appearance, appearing like the eyes of a large mammal in some species and like a hamburger in others (most notably M. sloanei) and giving rise to common names like deer-eye beans, donkey-eye beans, ox-eye beans, or hamburger seed.
The name of the genus is derived from mucunã, a Tupi–Guarani word for these species.
Ecology
Some Mucuna species are used as food plants by caterpillars of Lepidoptera. These include Morpho butterflies and the two-barred flasher (Astraptes fulgerator), which is sometimes found on M. holtonii and perhaps others. The plant pathogenic fungus Mycosphaerella mucunae is named for being first discovered on Mucuna.
Uses
The pods of some species are covered in coarse hairs that contain the proteolytic enzyme mucunain and cause itchy blisters when they come in contact with skin; specific epithets such as pruriens (Latin: "itching") or urens (Latinized Ancient Greek: "stinging like a nettle") refer to this. Other parts of the plant have medicinal properties. The plants or their extracts are sold in herbalism against a range of conditions, such as urinary tract, neurological, and menstruation disorders, constipation, edema, fevers, tuberculosis, and helminthiases such as elephantiasis. In an experiment to test if M. pruriens might have an effect on the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Katzenschlager et al. found that a seed powder had a comparable, if not more favourable, effect as commercial formulations of L-dopa, although the trial only consisted of four people per test group.
M. pruriens was found to increase phosphorus availability after application of rock phosphate in one Nigerian experiment. M. pruriens was used in Native American milpa agriculture.
Mucuna seeds contain a large number of antinutritional compounds. The most important is L-dopa, which the digestive system of most animals confuses with the amino acid tyrosine, causing the production of defective proteins. Other antinutrients are tannins, lectins, phytic acid, cyanogenic glycosides, and trypsin and amylase inhibitors, although all these can be removed by long cooking. M. pruriens may also contain chemicals such as serotonin, 5-HTP, nicotine, and the hallucinogenic tryptamines 5-MeO-DMT, bufotenine and dimethyltryptamine, Mucuna is not traditionally consumed as a food crop, but some preliminary experiments have shown that if the antinutrients are removed or at least brought down to safe level, the beans can be fed to livestock or people. The L-dopa content is the most important and difficult toxin to get rid of. The seeds must be extensively processed before they can be safely eaten. Diallo & Berhe found the best method was to crack open the seeds and soak them in constantly running fresh water such as under an open faucet for 36 hours, or to put them in a bag and leave in a flowing river for 72 hours, before cooking them for over an hour. Over a thousand people in the Republic of Guinea were fed a meal of Mucuna (mixed with many other ingredients) with no obvious ill effects.
Species
Plants of the World Online currently (2023) includes:
Mucuna acuminata Graham ex Baker
Mucuna aimun Wiriad.
Mucuna analuciana T.M.Moura, Mansano & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna angustifolia Adema
Mucuna argentea T.M.Moura, G.P.Lewis & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna argyrophylla Standl.
Mucuna atropurpurea (Roxb.) DC. ex Wight
Mucuna aurea C.B.Rob.
Mucuna bennettii F.Muell. – red jade vine
Mucuna biplicata Teijsm. & Binn. ex Kurz
Mucuna birdwoodiana Tutcher
Mucuna bodinieri H.Lév.
Mucuna brachycarpa Rech.
Mucuna bracteata DC. ex Kurz
Mucuna cajamarca T.M.Moura, G.P.Lewis & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna calophylla W.W.Sm.
Mucuna canaliculata Verdc.
Mucuna championii Benth.
Mucuna chiapaneca M.Sousa & T.M.Moura
Mucuna coriacea Baker
M. coriacea subsp. coriacea
M. coriacea subsp. irritans (Burtt Davy) Verdc.
Mucuna cuatrecasasii Hern.Cam. & C.Barbosa ex L.K.Ruíz
Mucuna curranii Elmer
Mucuna cyclocarpa F.P.Metcalf
Mucuna diabolica Backer
Mucuna diplax Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna discolor Merr. & L.M.Perry
Mucuna ecuatoriana T.M.Moura, G.P.Lewis, Mansano & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna elliptica DC.
Mucuna elmeri Merr.
Mucuna eurylamellata Adema
Mucuna ferox Verdc.
Mucuna flagellipes Vogel ex Hook.f.
Mucuna gigantea (Willd.) DC.
Mucuna glabra (Reinecke) Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna glabrialata (Hauman) Verdc.
Mucuna globulifera T.M.Moura, N.Zamora & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna gracilipes Craib
Mucuna guangxiensis K.W.Jiang & Y.Feng Huang
Mucuna hainanensis Hayata
Mucuna havilandii Wiriad.
Mucuna hirtipetala Wilmot-Dear & R.Sha
Mucuna holtonii (Kuntze) Moldenke
Mucuna hooglandii Verdc.
Mucuna humblotii Drake
Mucuna imbricata (Roxb. ex Lindl.) DC. ex Baker
Mucuna incurvata Wilmot-Dear & R.Sha
Mucuna interrupta Gagnep. (synonym M. nigricans)
Mucuna japira A.M.G.Azevedo, K.Agostini & Sazima
Mucuna jarocha T.M.Moura, Mansano, Gereau & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna kabaenensis Adema
Mucuna kawakabuti Wiriad.
Mucuna keyensis Burck
Mucuna killipiana Hern.Cam. & C.Barbosa
Mucuna klitgaardiae T.M.Moura, G.P.Lewis & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna kostermansii Wiriad.
Mucuna lamellata Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna lamii Verdc.
Mucuna laticifera Ingalh., N.V.Page & S.S.Gaikwad
Mucuna longipedunculata Merr.
Mucuna macrobotrys Hance
Mucuna macrocarpa Wall.
Mucuna macrophylla Miq.
Mucuna macropoda Baker f.
Mucuna manongarivensis Du Puy & Labat
Mucuna melanocarpa Hochst. ex A.Rich.
Mucuna membranacea Hayata
Mucuna mindorensis Merr.
Mucuna mitis (Ruiz & Pav.) DC.
Mucuna mollis (Kunth) DC.
Mucuna mollissima Teijsm. & Binn. ex Kurz
Mucuna monosperma Roxb. ex Wight
Mucuna monticola N.Zamora, T.M.Moura & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna mooneyi T.M.Moura, Gereau & G.P.Lewis
Mucuna mutisiana (Kunth) DC.
Mucuna neocaledonica Baker f.
Mucuna novoguineensis Scheff.
Mucuna occidentalis (Hepper) T.M.Moura & G.P.Lewis
Mucuna oligoplax Niyomdham & Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna pachycarpa Parreno ex Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna pacifica Hosok.
Mucuna pallida Cordem.
Mucuna paniculata Baker
Mucuna papuana Adema
Mucuna persericea (Wilmot-Dear) T.M.Moura & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna pesa De Wild.
Mucuna platyphylla A.Gray
Mucuna platyplekta Quisumb. & Merr.
Mucuna poggei Taub.
M. poggei var. pesa (De Wild.) Verdc.
M. poggei var. poggei
Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. – velvet bean, cowhage, kapikachu, etc.
Mucuna pseudoelliptica T.M.Moura, G.P.Lewis & A.M.G.Azevedo
Mucuna reptans Verdc.
Mucuna reticulata Burck
Mucuna revoluta Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna rostrata Benth.
Mucuna sakapipei Wiriad.
Mucuna samarensis Merr.
Mucuna sanjappae Aitawade & S.R.Yadav
Mucuna schlechteri Harms
Mucuna sempervirens Hemsl.
Mucuna sericophylla Perkins
Mucuna sloanei Fawc. & Rendle
Mucuna stanleyi C.T.White
Mucuna stans Welw. ex Baker
Mucuna stenoplax Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna subumbellata Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna sumbawaensis Wiriad.
Mucuna tapantiana N.Zamora & T.M.Moura
Mucuna thailandica Niyomdham & Wilmot-Dear
Mucuna tomentosa K.Schum.
Mucuna toppingii Merr.
Mucuna urens (L.) Medik. - type species
Mucuna verdcourtii Wiriad.
Mucuna warburgii K.Schum. & Lauterb.
Mucuna yadaviana S.S.Gaikwad, Lawand & Gurav
Formerly placed here
Canavalia mattogrossensis (Barb. Rodr.) Malme (as M. mattegrossensis Barb. Rodr.)
Psophocarpus scandens (Endl.) Verdc. (as M. comorensis Vatke)
References
Further reading
International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS) (2005): Genus Mucuna. Version 10.01, November 2005. Retrieved 2007-DEC-17.
Oudhia, Pankaj (2002): Kapikachu or Cowhage (Mucuna pruriens) Crop Fact Sheet. Version of 5-9-2002. Retrieved 2007-DEC-17.
External links
Bat-Pollinated Mucuna Flowers – The Source Of Tropical Sea Beans
Medicinal plants
Fabaceae genera
Pantropical flora