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Description

Mucuna pruriens is the Latin name for a creeping vine that grows all over Indiaparticularly in the tropicsand is also found in tropical regions of Africa and the Caribbean.

Even across different languages, many names for Mucuna pruriens refer to a velvet coating of hairs that cover its seedpods and that, if touched, can cause severe itching and irritation of the skin. Mucuna pruriens is well known by two Sanskrit names, Kapikacchu, which means "one starts itching like a monkey" and Atmagupta, which means "secret self," and hints at the therapeutic value of the seed concealed within the allergenic seedpod.
In English, the common name for this plant is Cowhage. Banyan offers Mucuna pruriens as Kapikacchu. Mucuna pruriens has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over two thousand years. There are traditional uses for the root and the trichomes (the irritating hairs themselves), but it is the seed of Mucuna pruriens that is most often employed therapeutically. There are actually two varieties of seedsone black and one white.