THE TRADITIONAL USES AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF MUCUNA PRURIENS (L)DC: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Medicinal plants have served as a constant source of medicaments, which have a great efficacy and demand for the treatment of various diseases. One of the plants, that deserve attention is Mucuna pruriens. The present review was designed to evaluate the preliminary phytochemical screening and secondary metabolites. Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC belongs to the family Fabaceae and is commonly known as Velvet bean, Cow witch, Cow hage due to morphology, phytochemical constituents, traditional uses, medicinal values and some pharmacological activities. Different parts of the plant are used in Ayurvedic research since ancient period due to their excellent medicinal values and cure many diseases such as bone fractures, cough, dog-bite, madness, pain, pleuritis, ring worm, scorpion sting, snake-bite, sores and syphilis, and is anticholestrolemic, antiparkinson, antidiabetic, aphrodisiac, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial, it is also used for the treatment of menstruation disorders, constipation, edema, fever, tuberculosis, etc. The seeds of Mucuna pruriens contain alkaloids, glycosides, reducing sugars, saponins, tannins, terpenoids, calcium, phosphorus and potassium, polyphenolic substances, protease inhibitor, phytic acid, and L-dopa is a major constituent present in whole herb. M.pruriens alkaloid P, Q, R, S, X (Alkaloid-misc), Myristic acid, Niacin (Inorganic), N,N1 Dimethyltryptamine, N,N1-Dimethyltryptamine-n-oxide, Nicotine, Oleic acid, Palmitic acid, Palmitoleic acid (Lipid), Phenylalanine, Phosphorus (Inorganic), Polysaccharide, Proline, Protein , Prurienidine, Prurieninine (Alkaloid-misc), etc are available. The most important of these bioactive compounds of plants are secondary metabolites. The present review is an attempt to provide reported details of information on this herb and its phytoconstituents and pharmacological activities. It is an attempt to provide a direction for further research.