Kapikacchu

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Kaunch

What the texts say Kapikacchu does

• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Balya — strengthening
• Brimhana — nourishing, builds tissue
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Rasayana — rejuvenative

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Nausea and vomiting
• Bloating
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Involuntary movements at high intake

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy and breastfeeding.; Anyone taking levodopa or other Parkinson's medicine, except under a doctor's direction.; Anyone taking an MAO inhibitor.; and more below.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

The seed is a natural L-DOPA source. The pod hairs are a severe irritant and must be removed — that is the shodhana.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I

Mucuna pruriens seed. L-DOPA content varies severalfold with variety and is the single most important figure for this dravya.

These are the marker and the identity test for this dravya, and they are not a test Laisha has run on anything. Laisha does not state the numeric limits here: the assay, ash and extractive figures must be read from the current edition of the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, because a wrong limit printed here is a number a laboratory would act on. The entries in this library that DO carry figures carry them because each one was checked.

Madhura and tikta with ushna virya and madhura vipaka.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Atmagupta and Swayamgupta both mean self-protected: the plant defends itself with the stinging hairs on its pods. Kandura means itching. The paryaya are a warning about handling, which is unusual and useful.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Mucuna utilis and other Mucuna species are grown as fodder and green manure and their seed is substituted; it differs in L-DOPA content, which for this dravya is the whole of its activity. Seed that has been stored badly loses L-DOPA, so old stock is weaker in a way nobody can see.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The seed of this plant is a natural source of L-DOPA, the same compound used as a prescription medicine for Parkinson's disease, which makes it one of the most pharmacologically active dravya in this library.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Mucuna is from a Brazilian Tupi name. Pruriens means itching — from prurio, to itch, the same root as prurient. The pod hairs earn it. Kapi-kacchu: monkey-itch.

Kapikacchu is named in the Charaka Samhita among the vajikarana dravya and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the seed does in a body.

Constituents. The seed carries L-DOPA, typically several per cent by weight. L-DOPA is the precursor of dopamine and is a prescription medicine in its own right.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.