**2.1 Bioactive compounds from seeds of** *Mucuna*

Seeds of *Mucuna* are commonly used part of the plant, which are a rich source of nutritional and anti-nutritional compounds like l-dopa (anti-Parkinson's activity), antioxidants, phenolic, flavonoids, tannin, carbohydrates, starch, protein, micronutrients Sopanines and many more [9, 12, 26]. Antioxidant activities in this plant are mainly due to phenolic and various bioactive compounds present in the seed material [36, 37]. There are various extraction techniques, different solvents and processing methods that were used to extract the biologically active compounds from the seed of *Mucuna* [26, 31]. The prior study reports that *M. macrocarpa, M. sanjappae* and *M. atropurpurea* disclosed a higher level of l-dopa content, which also concludes that l-dopa content has a positive correlation to the protein content of seeds [12]. These high-yielding varieties of *Mucuna* can be commercially cultivated, which can thus serve to be a good option to lower the burden exerted on commonly used *M. prurience* variety [28]. LCMS analysis of four different species demonstrates the presence of diverse group of phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, different derivatives of gallic acid, l-dopa, catechin, alkaloids, quercetin, tannic acid, glycosides, saponins, tubastatin and a variety of amino acids in the seed extract [38]. Apart from that, it is also concluded that few anticancer compounds like *Spergualin,* sanggenon G, isopentenyl adenosine and spisulosine are also present in the seed extract [28, 38].
