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Mucuna Pruriens Golden Hairy Form Seeds
Packet of 5+ home grown seeds!
This one is the wild type that grows in New Caledonia.
When compared to the other much friendlier form I grow this one is a smaller plant overall with smaller beans, smaller flowers, smaller leaves, smaller everything except the stinging hairs on the pods.
This undomesticated form has HEAPS of the hairs and they are VERY VERY IRRITANT!
If you put the whole pods in a bucket and shake them up, then pour through a sieve(with the wind at your back so it blows the loose hairs AWAY from you, not all over you which would require a trip to the hospital) a very large amount can be collected in a very short period of time.
Each one of these hairs looks like fine orange fibreglass fibres and I say from first hand experience they remain active and irritant for ages.
I know cos I left a full jar ontop of he fridge for ~6months, forget what it was, stick my finger in to find out thinking it must be pork floss or something, immediately remembered in a fraction of a second!
They do pack a quite considerable punch, and “itchy/prickly” just doesn’t come close.
If all that sounds terrible, management would be an issue, you have kids or pets, or you just don’t like itchy angry plants then this Domesticated form of Mucuna with larger seeds and less irritating pods is probably a better choice.
This particular form of Mucuna pruriens is often called “Mad Bean” due to the massive amounts of scary hairs or trichomes contain huge amounts of serotonin and mucanain and are a defencive mechanism used by the plant to prevent them being eaten.
Apparently some disgruntled farmers in Indian and China have taken to liberally sprinkling these nasty hairs on the food of enemies, causing a rather horrible reaction to the mouth and throat, massive unstoppable irritation and inflammation, extreme swelling and eventual death. Not a lot of fun by the sound of things and its hard to imagine a worse fate than a mouthful of these guys…
Known as Bengal bean, Buffalobean, Cabeca de frade, Cafe bean, Cafe incasa, Cafe listo, Carpogon capitatus, Carpogon niveus, Carpopogon atropurpureum, Carpopogon capitatum, Carpopogon niveum, Chiporro, Cowhage, Cowitch, Dolichos pruriens, Fava coceira, Frijol abono, Frijol terciopelo, Itch bean, Itchy bean, Itch pod, Krame, Macranthus cochinchinensis, Marcanthus cochinchinense, Mauritius bean, Mucuna aterrima, Mucuna atrocarpa, Mucuna axillaris, Mucuna bernieriana, Mucuna capitata, Mucuna cochinchinense, Mucuna cochinchinensis, Mucuna deeringiana, Mucuna esquirolii, Mucuna hassjoo, Mucuna luzoniensis, Mucuna lyonii, Mucuna martinii, Mucuna minima, Mucuna nivea, Mucuna prurita, Mucuna utilis, Mucuna velutina, Negretia mitis, Nescafe, Nescafe bean, Picapica, Po de mico, Pois mascate, Pois velus, Stizolobium aterrimum, Stizolobium atropurpureum, Stizolobium deeringianum, Stizolobium hassjoo, Stizolobium pruriens, Stizolobium utile, Stizolobium velutinum etc…
Native to southern China and eastern India, but now grow widely across the tropics as a coffee substitute, a staple grain, a leafy green vegetable, animal fodder, soil improving companion plant, and even as a medicinal plant.
It has no insect pests that we have noticed over the years, most likely due to naturally produced toxic compounds.
Here is a little data I found online that has some really interesting information, none of which I recommend you trying.
Untreated Mucuna pruriens can be toxic for human and non-ruminant animal consumption. The most important toxic compounds are the non-protein amino acids L-dopa (content in seeds <2% to >7%) and hallucinogenic tryptamines. Furthermore, trypsin-inhibiting activities have been detected in the seed. Grain treatment has best been done by boiling in water for one hour, pressure-cooking for 20 minutes, or boiling in water for 30 minutes after soaking in water for 48 hours. Despite the presence of anti-nutritional compounds however, there is evidence that velvet bean grains can be fed to ruminant animals to supplement their diet without apparent problems.
Mucuna pruriens is also used as a coffee substitute locally called “Nescafe”. The 48hour soaked beans are drained, dried then roasted, and used as per normal coffee.
The seeds of Mucuna pruriens have been used for treating many dysfunctions in Tibb-e-Unani (Unani Medicine), the traditional system of medicine of Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent. It is also used in Ayurvedic medicine.
The plant and its extracts have been long used in tribal communities as a toxin antagonist for various snakebites. Research on its effects against Naja spp. (cobra), Echis (Saw scaled viper), Calloselasma (Malayan Pit viper) and Bangarus (Krait) have shown it has potential use in the prophylactic treatment of snakebites.
Dried leaves of M. pruriens are sometimes smoked. It is also used in Siddha system of medicine for various purposes. It has long been used in traditional Ayurvedic Indian medicine for diseases including Parkinson’s disease. M. pruriens contains L-DOPA, a precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine and formulations of the seed powder have been studied for the management and treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
In large amounts (e.g. 30 g dose), it has been shown to be as effective as pure levodopa/carbidopa in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, but no data on long-term efficacy and tolerability are available.
In addition to levodopa, it contains minor amounts of serotonin (5-HT), 5-HTP, nicotine, N,N-DMT (DMT), bufotenine, and 5-MeO-DMT. As such, it could potentially have psychedelic effects, and it has purportedly been used in ayahuasca preparations. The mature seeds of the plant contain about 3.1-6.1% L-DOPA,[11] with trace amounts of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin), nicotine, DMT-n-oxide, bufotenine, 5-MeO-DMT-n-oxide, and beta-carboline. One study using 36 samples of the seeds found no tryptamines present in them. The leaves contain about 0.5% L-DOPA, 0.006% dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 0.0025% 5-MeO-DMT and 0.003% DMT n-oxide. The ethanolic extract of leaves of Mucuna pruriens possesses anticataleptic and antiepileptic effect in albino rats. Dopamine and serotonin may have a role in such activity.
Please note, I do NOT recommend it as a treatment for anything, and am selling it solely as an attractive, angry and interesting, ornamental and nitrogen fixing herb.
Grown by me and Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
