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Velvet bean is a vigorous, nitrogen-fixing, bushy or vining, annual plant. The vines will climb anything available and can reach 10 m or more in length. Velvet bean is somewhat drought tolerant and is an excellent green manure or cover crop with ability to suppress weeds and provide generous amounts of organic matter and nitrogen for the soil.



  1. Bush forms of Mucuna pruriens grow rapidly, but have a more compact growth habit than vining types. The leaves are large and trifoliate with lateral leaflets 7–15 cm long, 5–12 cm wide. Flowers are light purple or white, resulting in pods 4-13 cm in length. Wild forms of M. pruriens have pods...
  2. Velvet bean is a vigorous, nitrogen-fixing, bushy or vining, annual plant. The vines will climb anything available and can reach 10 m or more in length. Velvet bean is somewhat drought tolerant and is an excellent green manure or cover crop with ability to suppress weeds and provide generous...
  3. 1988-12-19 I am devoting three pages to this question because velvet bean is generating so much interest and the pressure to use it for human food is considerable. The multiple uses of velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) as a green manure plant, for weed and erosion control and for moisture conservation has been...
  4. 1995-01-19 More information about detoxifying Velvet Beans.
  5. 1996-10-19 Take a Lesson from the Deer A Perspective on Nutritional Limitations of Amaranth Toxic Plants Consumed by Goats May Affect Humans Who Drink Their Milk Can Peach Pits be Used as Food? Do Not Eat Sprouted Sorghum Is Velvet Bean Safe to Eat? New Information on the Toxic Substance in Velvet Beans...
  6. Abstract,Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems, 2003 Since 1996, Sasakawa Global 2000/Guinea has been collaborating with the National Departments of Extension and Research on promoting Mucuna pruriens as a cover crop for improving and maintaining good soil fertility. Efforts have also continued...
  7. Abstract of UF Dissertation, 2008 The Mucuna pruriens bean has high protein and starch contents, but also contains 3, 4 - dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (L-Dopa), which has pharmaceutical properties, but is toxic when ingested by monogastrics. Experiments were conducted to detoxify Mucuna for...
  8. Abstract, Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems, 2003 Mucuna pruriens performs well as a green manure/cover crop (GMCC) but has been poorly adopted because it lacks – or is perceived to lack – uses as a food and feed. The latter perception has persisted despite its extensive utilization as a...
  9. Mucuna pruriens utilis is an annual, or sometimes a short-lived perennial, climbing plant producing twining stems that usually grow around 4 metres long but can occasionally be up to 18 metres.The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and a medicine. It is cultivated in parts...
  10. Abstract, Parkinsons Disease, 2019 This review contains a critical appraisal of current knowledge about the use of beans in both animal models and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The potential beneficial effects of beans in PD are increasingly being touted, not only in scientific journals...
  11. Abstract, Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, 2012 Mucuna pruriens(Fabaceae) is an established herbal drug used for the management of male infertility, nervous disorders, and also as an aphrodisiac. It has been shown that its seeds are potentially of substantial medicinal...
  12. Cowhage is a bean-like plant. It grows wild in the tropics, including India and the Bahamas, and its range may extend to southern Florida. The bean, seed, andhairof the bean pod are used to make medicine. The appropriate dose of cowhage depends on several factors such as the user's age, health,...
  13. Abstract, Fruit, Vegetable and Cereal Science and Biotechnology, 2007 Biotechnology techniques have been widely used for legumes – important crops with excellent nutritional characteristics and soil improvement qualities. Limited work has been carried out with underutilized legume crops such as...
  14. TheMucuna Newsis an output of a Rockefeller-funded project on "IncreasingMucuna’s Potential as a Food and Feed Crop", which arose from a workshop organized in April, 2000, by CIDICCO (the International Center for Information on Cover Crops, based in Honduras) and CIEPCA together with Judson...
  15. Velvet bean is an indigenous legume and a tropical crop native to Southeast Asia. It is related to soybean and kudzu and also is found in Africa, India, and the West Indies. In the Philippines, it has been planted as intercrop in backyard kaingin of our ancestors. Some farmers in the south use...
  16. Common names English: Bengal velvet bean,cowagevelvet bean,Florida velvet bean, lacuna velvet bean,Lyon velvet bean, Mauritius velvet bean,velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean India and sub-continent: Kiwanch (Hindi), Akolchi (Bengali) Kavach (Gujarati), Kauchho (Nepal), Bandar Kekowa...
  17. Access Agriculture Training Video In the coastal savanna of West Africa, farmers explain how a mucuna cover crop helped to revive their highly degraded soil, and suppress the noxious weeds Striga and Imperata. They show how to grow it to benefit your maize and cassava, and why discussing land...
  18. -Velvet bean is grown as intercropping systems with maize,pearl millet, sorghum or sugarcane. The crop gives reliable yields in dry farming and low soil fertility conditions that do not allow the profitable cultivation of most other food legumes (Buckles et al., 1998). Velvet bean yields range...
  19. Common names Velvet bean, Mauritius velvet bean, Bengal bean, Florida velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean, cowage, cowhage, cowitch, lacuna bean, Lyon bean, itchy bean, krame, buffalobean, pica-pica, kapikachhu [English]; pois mascate, dolic, haricot de Floride, haricot de Maurice, pois velus,...
  20. Abstract,Livestock Research for Rural Development, 2009 Unconventional legumes are promising in terms of nutrition, providing food security, agricultural development and in crop rotation in developing countries. The wild legume, Mucuna consists of about 100 varieties/accessions and are in great...
  21. EdiblePortion: Seeds, Young pods, Leaves, Vegetable An evergreen herb of shrub. It is a climbing vine. It climbs to 6 m high. It can re-grow each year or live for a few years. Thestems are slender with long, slender branches. They are very hairy when young. The leaves are alternate with sword...