Since time immemorial different plants and plant parts have been used as traditional medicine, Ayurveda developed over generations within different societies before the era of modern medicine. According to WHO (2008), traditional medicine is the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on indigenous theories, beliefs and experiences of different cultures, whether explainable or not, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis and improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses. In some Asian and African countries, approximately 70-80% of the population still relies on traditional medicine for their primary healthcare needs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Mucuna pruriens usually known as velvet bean or cow itch or cowage belonging to the Fabaceae family (Rajeshwar et al., 2005) is a traditional medicinal plant used in Indian medicine. It includes 150 species of annual and perennial legumes (Lampariello et al., 2012). The tropical legume Mucuna pruriens is widely naturalized and cultivated and native to Africa and tropical Asia. It is considered a possible source of food protein (Janardhanan et al., 2003; Pugalenthi et al., 2005) thanks to its high protein content (23-35%) which guarantees its digestibility, compared to other legumes such as seeds of soy. , rice grain and lima bean (Gurumoorthi et al., 2003). It can therefore be considered a good source of food. Mucuna pruriens is an annual climbing hedge plant with long climbers that can reach over 15 meters in length. The plant is totally covered with downy hairs in the young stage, but is almost completely hairless as it ages (Sahaji, 2011). “Cowitch” and “cowage” are general English names for Mucuna types with abundant prickly orange hairs on the pods that cause severe itching if they come into contact with the skin (Andersen et al., 2015). The itching is caused by a protein known as mucuna (Reddy et al., 2008) contained in the hairs lining the pods. Non-stinging variants of M. pruriens are commonly called “velvet bean” and have oppressive, silky hairs. The dynamic annual climbing legume M. pruriens widely known as velvet bean, native to southern China and eastern India, was once widely cultivated as a green vegetable crop (Duke, 1981). It is currently used in the tropics as a popular green crop as a food, feed and cover crop (Eilitt?, 2003). M. pruriens has been reported to be traditionally consumed as food by some tribal groups in several countries. In many countries such as Asia, America, Africa and the Pacific Islands, the velvet bean is cultivated and used as a vegetable for human consumption; especially the pods; the young leaves are used as fodder for animals. The plant has long, thin branches; the leaves are trifoliate, alternate or spiral; flowers borne singly or in two or three in long hanging clusters, which vary from white to dark purple, butterfly-shaped corolla. The pods are hairy, large and fibrous, averaging 4 inches long and contain four to six seeds. They are pubescent with thick black, velvety hairs that cause irritating blisters when in contact with the skin. The seeds are subglobose, generally marbled, but sometimes coloured, white, brown or black. In India, the mature seeds of the velvet bean are traditionally consumed by a southern Indian hill tribe, the Kanikkar, after boiling them repeatedly to remove the toxic principles. In recent years, the Dravidian tribes of Tirunelveli district have started cultivating it for use, 1981).