Since time immemorial, various plants and plant parts have been used as traditional medicine. Ayurveda developed over generations in 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 theories, beliefs and experiences specific to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well than in prevention. , diagnosis and improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses. In some countries in Asia and Africa, approximately 70-80% of the population still relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Mucuna pruriens, commonly known as velvet bean or cow's itch or cow's itch, belonging to the family Fabaceae (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 dietary protein (Janardhanan et al., 2003; Pugalenthi et al., 2005) due to its high protein content (23-35%), which corresponds to its digestibility, compared to other legumes such as soy. , rice bean 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 vines that can reach over 15 meters (50 feet) in length. The plant is completely covered in downy hairs when young, but is almost completely hairless when it grows (Sahaji, 2011). “Cowitch” and “cowage” are general English names of Mucuna types with long, abundant 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 covering the pods. Non-prickly variants of M. pruriens are commonly called "velvet beans" and they have downtrodden, silky hair. 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 (Duke, 1981). It is currently used in the tropics as a popular green crop for food and feed and as a cover crop (Eilitt?, 2003). M. pruriens has been reported to have been traditionally consumed as food by certain tribal groups in a number of countries. In many countries like Asia, America, Africa and the Pacific Islands, velvet bean is cultivated and used as a vegetable for human consumption; especially the pods; young leaves are used as fodder for animals. The plant has long, thin branches; the leaves are trifoliate, alternate or spiral; flowers borne alone or in twos or threes in long pendulous clusters, varying from white to dark purple, butterfly-shaped corolla. The pods are hairy, thick and stringy, averaging 4 inches long and containing four to six seeds. They are pubescent with dense, velvety black hairs that cause irritating blisters when in contact with the skin. The seeds are subglobose, usually., 1981).