Abstract
Mucuna pruriens is an Indian legume composed by high amounts of proteins and carbohydrates and small concentration of lipids. It has been used ethnopharmacologically as hipoglicemic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, hypolipidemic and mainly to Parkinson Disease treatment. Since Mucuna pruriens improves spermatogenesis, testis weight and increased the production of testosterone in rats, it has been assumed that mucuna has anabolic potential for muscle hypertrophy, so it has been commercially exploited as an ergogenic aid. This mini-review shows, in addition to promoting increased testosterone, increase in epididymal protein, thus confirming that its extracts may have influence on androgenic aspect. Despite this, it is necessary to confirm these findings in humans, since the studies analyzed were made only in animal model.
Highlights
Ayuverdic medicine uses Mucuna pruriens (MP) in the treatment of Parkinson disease, because of rich composition in levodopa, similar to a largely drug used in the treatment of Parkinson [1]
There are only speculations and there is a lack of scientific evidence, products based on MP extract are being widely sold and presented in media as an herb derived nutritional supplement promising weight loss, hypertrophy and improvement in sports performance
While synthetic L-dopa is the gold-standard drug used in the treatment of this disease, there is high quantity of L-dopa in MP and several studies have demonstrated reduction of the symptoms of Parkinson Disease with use of Mucuna pruriens [18,22]
Summary
Ayuverdic medicine uses Mucuna pruriens (MP) in the treatment of Parkinson disease, because of rich composition in levodopa, similar to a largely drug used in the treatment of Parkinson [1]. Other studies have found further properties of MP using all parts of the plant (leaf, stem or pod), but the majority of the researches use its bean. These studies have been proposed it hypoglycemic effect [2], anti-inflammatory [3], hypolipidemic [4] as well as estrogenic activity [5] and androgenic [6,7] in an animal model. There are only speculations and there is a lack of scientific evidence, products based on MP extract are being widely sold and presented in media as an herb derived nutritional supplement promising weight loss, hypertrophy and improvement in sports performance. The goal of this review is to collect scientific evidences that prove some of therapeutic properties of this legume and to explain the speculations regarding to possible applications of MP extract for weight loss and hypertrophy proposes
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