Bioactive Components of Magical Velvet Beans

*Suresh S. Suryawanshi, Prajakta P. Kamble, Vishwas A. Bapat and Jyoti P. Jadhav*

## **Abstract**

The plant *Mucuna* is an annual climbing shrub with long vines that can reach over fifteen meters in length. About 100–150 *Mucuna* species are found in the tropic and subtropic regions of both hemispheres of the earth. The genus *Mucuna* belongs to the family Leguminosae. It is commonly known as Kewanch, velvet bean, cowhage and kappikachhu and is found widely in India as a hardy, herbaceous, vigorous, twining annual plant. The size and dimension of the *Mucuna* seeds, pods, platelets and leaves change from species to species. The hair present on pods is anthelmintic, which causes itching. People are seeking great attention towards *Mucuna* due to its several medicinal properties, including L-DOPA (L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) along with supplementary antioxidants that are used for treating Parkinson's disease and many neurodegenerative diseases. Thus it is being used in about 200 medicinal formulations. The current chapter outlines the work that determines the influence of different nutritional, anti-nutritional and medicinal values and bioactive agents from different parts of the *Mucuna* species present in India and its importance in medicine.

**Keywords:** Legumes, *Mucuna*, Parkinson's disease, l-dopa, antioxidants

#### **1. Introduction**

*Mucuna* is a valuable genus of Leguminosae family; it has tremendous value in food and medicine. The genus *Mucuna* originated in Eastern India and China and then was transferred throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world creating new populations [1]. Traditionally, *Mucuna* is known by different names including beans, buffalo beans, dopa bean, cowitch, kappikachhu and atmagupta. Out of 100 *Mucuna* species found worldwide, 8 species and 3 varieties of *Mucuna* are predominantly found in different localities of India [1–4]. The *Mucuna* plant is an annual perennial climbing shrub with long vines having a length of 15–25 m with trifoliate leaves and yielding long inflorescences with purple or pale yellow flowers. They produce green or brown pods covered with rigid hair, which causes intense itching [5]. Pods contain four to six ellipsoidal-shaped seeds that are rich dark brown or blotched [6] varying from species to species. *Mucuna* seeds are a rich source of nutritional, antinutritional and phytochemical compounds containing l-dopa as a prime constituent [7]. The content of l-dopa varies between from species to species and locality to locality. Among them, *M. pruriens* is the most exploited species as a remedy against Parkinson's disease [8]. Due to huge

international and national trade price and scarcity of *M. pruriens*, other *Mucuna* species are reported to be adulterants for *M. pruriens.*

Ancient reports of Ayurveda suggest that *Mucuna* seed powder contributes in reducing the risks of certain cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disease and also as a remedy for snake bite. The seeds of *Mucuna* have gained increasing attention among food scientists, nutrition specialists and pharmaceutical expertise due to their rich source of antioxidant, phenolic, flavonoids, l-dopa, proteins, starch, micronutrients, dietary fiber and bioactive compounds that play a pronounced role in the traditional as well as modern medicine all over the world [9, 10]. The existing scenario shows ten reported *Mucuna* species that were studied recently by Pulikkalpura et al., from the Indian subcontinent [11], whereas Patil et al., also collected fourteen different species of *Mucuna* from various localities and further studied for their l-dopa content (anti-Parkinson's activity) [6, 12].

*Mucuna* grows best under moist, warm conditions and in areas with plenteous rainfall. It can propagate in any type of soil but sandy lome soil is mostly favorable with pH of 5.5–7.5. Several researchers have investigated different species having typical characteristics like size and shape of bracts, leaflets and pods, color, thickness, density as well as number of seeds in pod and flower, respectively [6]. The evaluation of genetic-level studies of *Mucuna* species from India was also carried out using inter-simple sequence repeat markers and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA [13]. The seeds show tolerance against different abiotic stress including low soil fertility and acidic pH and also grow in wet soils (Duke, 1981). Similar to different species, *Mucuna* also has 2n = 2x = 22 number of chromosomes with genome size ranging between 1281 and 1361 Mbp/C [14]. Due to wild fluctuating climatic and geographical distribution, these species show gigantic diversity in phenotype in the Indian subcontinent. Corresponding to the family *Leguminosae*, it also has the ability of atmospheric nitrogen fixation. It is also grown for the potential utility in animal feed and human food due to its rich source of nutritional content [15, 16]. Thus, it was consumed universally for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Traditionally, in Ayurvedic science, *Mucuna* (velvet bean) plant is widely used to treat numerous diseases including parkinsonism [17–21] due to its l-dopa content as one of the principal constituents [9]. All parts of *Mucuna* have a great medicinal value in the ancient traditional medicinal system, and hence, it has a prodigious demand in the international and the Indian market [7, 22].

*Mucuna* is a superb source of protein and bioactive compounds that have increased consumption per capita after being considered as a functional food by the US [23]. The previous literature survey shows that the declining occurrence of numerous long-lasting disorders, namely neurological disorder, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and cancer, has a positive correlation with the consumption of legume seeds [24]. Considering all the evident health profits, studying its bioactive compounds is of great importance. Among all the under-utilized *Mucuna* species, normally available and commonly used *Mucuna pruriens* seeds were studied enormously and have been reported in numerous of articles published till date. To avoid the burden on commonly available and used *Mucuna Purience,* various researchers are studying bioactive components and the use of other *Mucuna* species like *M. imbracata*, *M. bracteata*, *M. monosperma*, *M. macrocarpa, M. sanjappae,* M. atropurpurea, M. nigricans, M. gigantea, M. pruriens var *hirsuta, M. laticifera, M. yadaviana*, etc. in the treatment of various diseases [5–7, 9, 11–14, 17, 20, 22, 25–34]. Phytochemistry, toxilogicalogycal and food potential on the *Mucuna* species under study in the world were described by Lorenzetti et al. [35].

**137**

*Bioactive Components of Magical Velvet Beans DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92124*

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

**2.2 Bioactive compounds from leaves and roots of** *Mucuna*

leaves were reported being used previously [8, 20, 43, 44].

**2.3 Bioactive compounds from callus of** *Mucuna*

The root extract of *Mucuna* has various activities like stimulant, thermogenic, purgative, emollient, diuretic anthelmintic, emmenagogue and tonic; hence, they are used in the vitiated circumstances in Veda and Ayurveda [39]. l-Dopa content of leaves and roots is as much as 1% and 4–7% in *Mucuna* plant [40]. *Mucuna* plants release secondary chemical compounds called allelochemical in the form of l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-dopa) in the surrounding environment which show an impact on growth of nearby plants, either negatively or positively. These substances are produced through its roots, seeds or leaves [41]. These secondary chemical agents play a role in damaging root growth, terminating seedling growth, inhibiting plantlet growth or suppressing seed germination of other plants [42]. Plant-box bioassay explains that the secondary chemical compound produced from the root of *Mucuna* is l-dopa [40], which affects the cell and root of various plant seedlings [41]. Leaf extracts are used to treat various complications like Anticataleptic, antiepileptic, aphrodisiac, antimicrobial, tonic and ulcers are some applications in which *Mucuna*

Production of callus from *Mucuna* plant material is a new era in the advancement of biochemical engineering and industrial biotechnology, which has the potential to produce different biologically active agents from the explant [45, 46]. Their application in cost-effective industrially important product formation is helpful for humankind, which upshots effective drug formulations and upsurges the nutritional level of food [47, 48]. l-Dopa is a major component in different parts of *Mucuna* species [9]. This also helps in storing germplasm of endangered species, which in turn leads to regenerate new plantlets at any time. Production of callus from *Mucuna* species was done previously by the researcher at the lab scale [49]. An earlier study by Chattopadhyay et al. depicted the formation of callus culture of commonly used

**2. Bioactive compounds from various parts of** *Mucuna* **species**

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].

*Legume Crops - Prospects, Production and Uses*

activity) [6, 12].

the Indian market [7, 22].

species are reported to be adulterants for *M. pruriens.*

international and national trade price and scarcity of *M. pruriens*, other *Mucuna*

Ancient reports of Ayurveda suggest that *Mucuna* seed powder contributes in reducing the risks of certain cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disease and also as a remedy for snake bite. The seeds of *Mucuna* have gained increasing attention among food scientists, nutrition specialists and pharmaceutical expertise due to their rich source of antioxidant, phenolic, flavonoids, l-dopa, proteins, starch, micronutrients, dietary fiber and bioactive compounds that play a pronounced role in the traditional as well as modern medicine all over the world [9, 10]. The existing scenario shows ten reported *Mucuna* species that were studied recently by Pulikkalpura et al., from the Indian subcontinent [11], whereas Patil et al., also collected fourteen different species of *Mucuna* from various localities and further studied for their l-dopa content (anti-Parkinson's

*Mucuna* grows best under moist, warm conditions and in areas with plenteous rainfall. It can propagate in any type of soil but sandy lome soil is mostly favorable with pH of 5.5–7.5. Several researchers have investigated different species having typical characteristics like size and shape of bracts, leaflets and pods, color, thickness, density as well as number of seeds in pod and flower, respectively [6]. The evaluation of genetic-level studies of *Mucuna* species from India was also carried out using inter-simple sequence repeat markers and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA [13]. The seeds show tolerance against different abiotic stress including low soil fertility and acidic pH and also grow in wet soils (Duke, 1981). Similar to different species, *Mucuna* also has 2n = 2x = 22 number of chromosomes with genome size ranging between 1281 and 1361 Mbp/C [14]. Due to wild fluctuating climatic and geographical distribution, these species show gigantic diversity in phenotype in the Indian subcontinent. Corresponding to the family *Leguminosae*, it also has the ability of atmospheric nitrogen fixation. It is also grown for the potential utility in animal feed and human food due to its rich source of nutritional content [15, 16]. Thus, it was consumed universally for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Traditionally, in Ayurvedic science, *Mucuna* (velvet bean) plant is widely used to treat numerous diseases including parkinsonism [17–21] due to its l-dopa content as one of the principal constituents [9]. All parts of *Mucuna* have a great medicinal value in the ancient traditional medicinal system, and hence, it has a prodigious demand in the international and

*Mucuna* is a superb source of protein and bioactive compounds that have increased consumption per capita after being considered as a functional food by the US [23]. The previous literature survey shows that the declining occurrence of numerous long-lasting disorders, namely neurological disorder, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and cancer, has a positive correlation with the consumption of legume seeds [24]. Considering all the evident health profits, studying its bioactive compounds is of great importance. Among all the under-utilized *Mucuna* species, normally available and commonly used *Mucuna pruriens* seeds were studied enormously and have been reported in numerous of articles published till date. To avoid the burden on commonly available and used *Mucuna Purience,* various researchers are studying bioactive components and the use of other *Mucuna* species like *M. imbracata*, *M. bracteata*, *M. monosperma*, *M. macrocarpa, M. sanjappae,* M. atropurpurea, M. nigricans, M. gigantea, M. pruriens var *hirsuta, M. laticifera, M. yadaviana*, etc. in the treatment of various diseases [5–7, 9, 11–14, 17, 20, 22, 25–34]. Phytochemistry, toxilogicalogycal and food potential on the *Mucuna* species under study in the world were described by

**136**

Lorenzetti et al. [35].
