The legume velvetbean Mucuna deeringiana is an interesting legume. It is prominent in legumes for having one of the largest flowers and the anatomy is easily observed and studied.

This legume has amazing ability to suppresss weeds and pests and the biochemistry is instructive also.

As the perhaps highest source of levo dopamine the wound curing of this legume is to turn the levo dopamine to red dopachrome in the oxidation response and then through oxidation and polymerization a black melanic substance results.

The stabilized melanin along with the abundant biomass maybe the secreat tor this plant not only to provide Nitrogen but also to increase the soil organic matter.

Levo dopa is part of a treatment for parkinson disease and is used by physical culturists to stimulate muscular development.

L dopa is a messenger for the animal nervous system.

So my own studies showed that Mucuna has both mulching efficacy but also the ability to suppress weed seed development.

The large and hard seeds are good for making natural jewelry.

In central America the mucuna maize production system is cable of weaning the production system from herbicide and also Nitrogen fertilizer addition.

The ability to improve soil organic matter measures instead of soil depletion the system of production give soil building that helps rather than degrades the environment.

Hope you found the magical Mucuna an interesting plant with much use and promise.

The Mucuna photo is from public archives and is not original property of myself.

The divulging of it is solely for public education purpose.

Paul Reed Hepperly Thank you for your help,it's really interesting and it is what I was looking for.

Paul Reed Hepperly Historically, Romans and Greeks included legumes as pivotal part of ritual sacrifices to their deities, as depicted in archaeological vase paintings (see Detienne and Vernant 1989- a bibliography of Greek sacrifice-chapter 10).

Legumes also possess toxins and poisonous substances- by producing protease inhibiting that interfer with active digestive enzymes. this can inhibit growth and accumulate cyanogenic glocosides in the intestines which can form cynide and neurotoxins causing numbness, sickness or death. This coulld be more prevalent in animals than humans since regorous cooking can eliminate these toxins. see also Hesperia 68.3, of 1999.

I hope this can add to already famous legume attributes, like soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, protien/nutrition for human and animal feed etc.

Absolutely legumes have many mqny interesting roles some have been used as fish poisons for fishing and the toxicity can be useful for weed management.

I would like to say I found when working in Puerto Rico the zones around the plant were relatively free of aggressive weed growth

The plant was Pigeon Pea Cajanus cajan L. and upon study the principal area of weed inhibition was found in the plant leaves.

Pigeon pea leaves are rich in glands which secrete a golden colored resent.

This material is rich in terpenoid compounds. When solvents were tested for dissolving the resinous material the solvents detoxified the leaves.

. Perhaps the most famous terpenoid rich source studied now is the Hemp or Marijuana plant which has hundreds of terpenoids known and identified with a wide array of effects.

Terpenoids are also the source of neem bioinsecide.

I have been a very big Pigeon pea fan.

Pigeons produce vast amounts of good protein needed for optimizing nutrition.

Watch out pegeon pea are rich in tryptophane amino acid and after eating them you might be compelled to nap.

It grows in areas prone to periodic drought and inany low fertility soils.

It needs very little attention

With myself and interested students we discovered the amazing pigeon pea has some fascinating secrets.

Have a look at this:

Article Historical Note: Traditional Use of Legume Seeds for Weighin...

More on Legume Lore

Recommend a book called the Secret Life of Plants I believe.

This book relates the storied life of George Washington Carver among many other fascinating facts.

I am very interested and fond of George Washington Carver a plant genius

Born a slave he was orphaned and brought himself up worked his way through college and post graduate studies and became the leading educator and researcher at the Tuskeegee Institute

He was in charge of renewing Southern United State agriculture based on soil depleting cotton production.

He found the peanut plant Arachis hypogea L. was amazing for soil restoration.

He recommended planting it to small farmers and it grew abundantly and then the problem what can it used

He found the peanut plant tArachis hypogea L.housands of was amazing for soil restoration.

Bottomline is that to respond what can use peanuts for he identied thousands of uses of the plant by investigating its nature and properties in his home developed laboratory.

According to Chuck Kritzon who had a primitive use organization use of herbs for fishing is common.

Of six families of fish poisons 2 are from legumes Derris and Tephrosia genera in particular.

See his article below.

Fishing with Poisons

By Chuck Kritzon © 2003

In my studies of California Native Cultures, I was often surprised to keep coming upon plant-use references documenting "fish poisons". In widening my search, I became aware that most indigenous cultures across the Americas and indeed on all continents in the temperate areas of the world, used poisonous plants to catch fish. Below is a small sample of fish poisons and the indigenous peoples who used them. Further study will present the reader with a much greater breadth of information.

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Fish poison plant families of the world.

Most fish poisons, also called icthyotoxins or piscicides, occur in several related plant species. A variety of chemicals found in these plants will stun fish when it passes through the gills or in some cases ingested. The fish then floats to the surface for easy capture.

The active ingredient is released by mashing the appropriate plant parts, which are then introduced to the water environment. Poisoning was generally done in stagnant pools or slow-flowing streams and rivers, that allow the pounded bark, leaf, seed, root or fruit, to concentrate its power without being washed away or diluted by a strong current. Sometimes streams would be partly blocked to slow down the water flow. Gathering the fish was usually done by hand, but baskets, spears and nets were sometimes employed.

Although primarily used in fresh water areas, Australian Aborigines and Californian Indians also used this technique in saltwater environments for octopus and low-tide shellfish fishing as well as for catching fish trapped in inter-tidal pools.

This ethnological report from Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia, shows that with some Native Peoples, the cultural and material world was not separated:

A secret, sacred song of the Pascoe River bora (initiation cult) was sung by 60-year-old George Morton accompanying himself with his own drum. The singer was born a Kandyu but married a Wutati woman who was the daughter of one of the great Wutati bora singers who handed down the entire repertory of ancient bora songs to him. This song tells of a turtle that used a medicinal vine as a poison to catch fish in a rock pool at low tide.

The use of plant poisons to catch fish is still used in many places in the world today. In Guyana, fishers pound the root of Lonchocarpus on logs fallen across a stream and allow the juices to drip down into the water. Brazilian gold miners, who probably learned the technique from the displaced Yanomami Indians of the Amazon, also toss pulped plant material into a very slow moving stream where the fish would surface down stream and be washed into a net set in place by the fishermen.

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Grating Barringtonia seeds on the island of Tanna for use as fish poison.

The Carib Indians, who live along the Barama River also in Guyana, use a modified technique. A ball of bait is made from baked Cassava (Manihot esculenta) mixed with the pounded toxin-laced leaves of Clibadium. The small balls are thrown into the river where the fish swallow the balls whole. As with the previous methods, the stupefied fish floats to the surface for easy capture.

H.E. Anthony reported another example of fish poison use in South America in 1921.

"Another poison which is extensively employed by the Jivaros is barbasco (a common name for any plant used as fish poison), a jungle vine or creeper, which is put into the rivers to secure fish. A great pile of the plant is beaten up on the rocks until it is a pulp, and after the Indians have stationed themselves down-stream, some of their number throw 2-3 hundred pounds of mash into the river and the fishing begins. The fish are killed and float down, belly up, to be gathered in by the Jivaros, who see them as they pass.So potent is this juice that large streams may be poisoned by this relatively small amount of barbasco and under favorable circumstances fish are stricken for a distance of three miles down-stream."

The pandemic need to find plants that work well as a soap, i.e. the ability to make lather and suds when agitated with water, has been pursued by most native cultures. The experience of using various plants selected for their soap like properties, led to the universal discovery that chemicals from these plants would also stun fish when used in a specific circumstance.

The two primary chemicals that occur in most plants used for stunning fish are saponin and rotenone.

SAPONINS

Saponins normally break down in the digestive system and must enter the bloodstream to be toxic, but fish take in saponins directly into their bloodstream through their gills. The toxin acts on the respiratory organs of the fish without affecting their edibility. Saponins also cause the breakdown of red blood cells that help the toxin to spread quickly. Even though the effects of the poison are powerful, they are not usually fatal. Fish that are washed away into untainted water revive, and can return to their pre-toxic condition. Because of this, the fishermen would have to gather the stunned fish quickly as they floated to the surface.

Saponins are one of a group of glucosides found in many plant species with known foaming properties when mixed with water. Saponins lower the surface tension of water allowing the formation of small stable bubbles. The amount of foam created by a crushed plant sample, shaken with water in a jar, is a good indication of the amount of saponins present.

Saponins have been used in modern times in the manufacture of fire extinguisher foam, toothpaste, shampoos, liquid soaps, and cosmetics and to increase the foaming of beer and soft drinks.

Plant Families that contain significant saponins are: Amaryllidaceae, Convolvulaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Lamiaceae, Lecythidaceae, Liliaceae, Loganiaceae, Meliaeae, Menispermacea, Papilionaceae, Solanaceae, Sapindaceae, Sapotaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Solanaceae, Verbenaceae.

ROTENONES

Plants containing rotenones are the second most utilized as a fish poison. Rotenone is an alkaloid toxin, in a group called flavonoids and stuns fish by impairing their oxygen consumption. The plant is toxic only to cold-blooded creatures and is found almost exclusively among the family comprised of legumes (Papilionaceae, Mimosaceae, Cesalpiniaceae). Rotenone is also used today as an insecticide.

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Fish Poison Wattle (Acacia holosericea)

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Fish Poison Tree seedpod (Acacia ditricha) Leaves are used for fish poison.

Below is a short list of indigenous peoples and the plants they used to poison fish:

Location or Tribe / Common Name, (Latin Name) / Part used

UNITED STATES

Catawba, Cherokee, and Delaware / Black Walnut, (Juglans nigra) / Bark and green nut husk

Yuchi and Creek / Devil's Shoestring, (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) / Roots

Horse Chestnut, (Aesculus hippocastanum L) / Fruit, twigs and buds

Cherokee / Polk Sallet, Polkweed, (Phytolacca americana) / Berries

Central and coastal California / Turkey-Mullein, (Eremocarpus setigerus) / Leaves

California Buckeye, (Aesculus California) / Nut or fruit

Soap plant, soap root, (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) / Bulb

Indian hemp, (Apocynum cannabinum) / Stalk, leaves

Pokeweed, Polk sallet, (Phytolacca americana) / Leaves

Indian Turnip, (Arisaema triphyllum) / Leaves

Wild cucumber, Manroot, ( Marah fabaceus) / Seeds

SOUTH AMERICA

Mexico / Lechuguilla, (Agave lechuguilla) / Leaves

Venezuela / Soapberry, (Sapindus drummondii) / Berries

Mexican Buckeye, (Ungnadia speciosa) / Nut or fruit

Ecuador / Barbasco, (Jacquinia sprucei) / Bark, roots

Barbasco, (Tephrosia toxicofera) / Bark

Barbasco, (Lonchocarpus nicou) / Roots

Acariquara, (Minquartia guianensis) / Bark

Brazil / Fish poison leaves, (Euforbia cotinifolia) / Leaves

PACIFIC ISLANDS

Rarotonga, Moorea / Fish poison tree, (Barringtonia asiatica) / Seeds and leaves

Hawai'i / 'Auhuhu, (Tephrosia Purpurea) / Roots and bark

'Äkia, The fish poison plant, (Wikstroemia uva-ursi) / Roots, bark and leaves

AUSTRALIA

Pituri, (Duboisia hopwoodii) / Cured leaves

Austral Indigo, (Indigofera australis) / Leaves and fruits

Fish Killer Tree, (Barringtonia asiatica) / Seeds and leaves

Fish Poison Tree, (Acacia ditricha) / Leaves

Fish Poison Tree, (Barringtonia racemosa) / Seeds and leaves

Fish Poison-wood, (Barringtonia vitiflora) / Seeds and leaves

Fish Poison Wattle

Soapy Wattle, (Acacia holosericea) / Leaves

INDIA

Pongam, Indian Beech, Derris, (Pongamia pinnata) / Seeds

Fish Berries, (Anamirta cocculus) / Seeds

Bloodflower, Curassavian

Swallowwort, (Asclepias curassavica) / Roots

AFRICA

Pencil tree, Milk bush, (Euphorbia tirucalli) / Leaves, sap

Guele, Ironwood, (Prosopis africana) / Dry fruits

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Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

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Turkey Mullein or Dove Weed (Eremocarpus setigerus)

Ecological Responsibility

Professionals today, to control fish populations or to eliminate alien or destructive species, use the same plant toxins: saponin and rotenone. Practicing primitives may be eager to experiment with the techniques listed above, but great care must be used, as the toxins are not selective and will eliminate all fish in the water where it is introduced. Keep in mind what is down stream and may be affected by these poisons. These chemicals will generally break down in sunlight. If you choose to use this technique, be aware that fishing with poison (even natural poison) is illegal in most states. Check your local laws.

A Lesson From the Amazon

Professor Sir Ghillean Prance relates this story from an expedition in which he was a member in the 1960's:

"The Maku Indians of the upper Rio Negro region of Brazil are well known for their fish feasts, where they go to a small river and catch a large number of fish by using fish poisons. The time I arranged to watch one of these, we were told that we must set out into the forest early in the morning. After two hours of a very fast walk we came to a small stream and I was glad to have arrived, but our leader said 'not here'. We came to another stream an hour later just to be informed the same again. This process continued for about eight hours when finally the chief proclaimed that this was the correct stream.We were almost too exhausted to observe the preparations as the men built a frame over the stream and placed their sacks of the fish poison leaves (Euphorbia cotinifolia). Meanwhile the women stirred up the muddy stream and the men began to beat the leaves so that the plant juices dripped down into the water. Very soon fish began to float to the surface and were gathered up by excited women and children.We had a banquet as all the fish were roasted on fires and eaten. I asked the chief why we had to walk so far to carry out this operation. The answer I received was that they had poisoned fish in the first stream two moons ago, in the second five moons ago etc., until I got a complete description of when each stream had been used. He then informed me that if they poisoned a stream too frequently there would not be any fish left.How unlike the fisheries off the British Isles, Japan or Newfoundland where fish like cod have been mined almost to extinction. These Indians are aware that you manage such natural resources rather than over-exploit them to extinction. Could we not learn from this harmonious co-existence with nature and become better managers and less greedy about our natural resources?"

REFERENCES

Anthony, H.E., 1921 Over Trail and Through Jungle in Ecuador National Geographic Magazine, October 1921, Pgs. 328-333 Armstrong, W.P, 2001 Soap Lilies In California, Bulb Plants Used For Soap and Food. Noteworthy Plants, December 2001. (12 June 2001) http://waynesword.palomar.edu/wayne.htm Bioinformatics Centre, 1998 Traditional Uses of Mangrove Plant Products in India National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India http://www.indian-ocean.org/bioinformatics/mangrove/MANGCD/Use2.htm Campbell, Paul , 1991 "Fish Poison", Survival Skills of Native California Pg.433-434, Gibbs Smith Publishing, Layton Utah Shetlar, David J., 1997 Insect and Mite Control on Woody Ornamentals and Herbaceous Perennials Extension Entomology, Bulletin 504 The Ohio State University, 1991 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1090 Duke, J.A., (Pongamia pinnat) Handbook of Energy Crops, unpublished St. Onge, J., 2002 Fish-Poison Use in the Americas www.survival.com/fish.htm Fallon, S. and Enig, M.G., 1999 Australian Aborigines-Living of the Fat of the Land Price-Pottager Nutrition Foundation Health Journal Vol 22, No. 2 Houerou, L., 2002 (Prosopis africana) f. Leguminosea. Species Description Oudhia, P., 2002 Bhuiaonla (Phyllanthus niruri). A Useful Medicinal Weed Crop Fact Sheets, Society for Pathenium Management www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropfactsheets/pyllanthus.htm Prance, G., 2002 The Harmonious Co-Existence Between Plants and People Lecture for the Cosmos Forum on botany to commemorate the awarding of the tenth International Cosmos Prize ­ Osaka, October 2002 Rajasekharan, P.E. and Shivanand, T.N., 2001 Blood Flower The Hindu Newspaper section: features 2-18-02 http://hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/02/18/stories/1318045e.htm Seigler, D.S., 2002 "Lecture Notes", Plant Biology 263, Plants and Their Uses Dept. Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana Sungei Buloh Nature Park, 2001 Information Sheet on Mangrove Flora Singapore National Parks http://www.sbnp.org/mangrove_flora.html Team 26252, 1999 Project Rainforest Thinkquest http://library.thinkquest.org/26252/evaluate/3.htm TravelWizard.Com, 2002 Rarotonga Vacation Guide http://www.southpacificvacationguide.com/travel/Rarotonga_Overview.html

Some well-known triterpenoid saponin-accumulating plant families include the Leguminosae. Saponins in legumes are interesting. They lather up in water like soap, from which they derive their name. Excessive ingestion is harmful. For example, improperly processed soy beans in dog food led to cases of bloat (gastric torsion). The biological and pharmacological activities of saponins range from anti-viral, antimicrobial, and antifungal, to immunomodulatory effects. As medical adjuvants, compounds that add value to vaccines, for example, they help boost immune response. Protective properties of saponins include: increasing the immunogenicity of weak antigens; enhancing the speed and duration of the immune response; stimulating cell mediated immunity; and enhancing mucosal immunity, which is the first line of anti-viral defense.