Mucuna pruriens Leaves Smoked?

[Yeti101]

I've managed to get growing a large Mucuna pruriens (aka Velet bean) plant. I was going to experiment with smoking the leaves, but remembered the warning about the hairs lining the seed pod and noticed that the leaves are also covered in very fine hairs.

A preliminary test (rubbing a fresh leaf on my forearm) indicated that these leaf hairs are indeed also irritating, to myself at least.

How in the world do I smoke something that has such an efect? I would hate to think what one of those hairs would feel like in my throat or lung.

If anyone has any ideas or experience with this plant I would apreciate any advice that could be given.

Till next time....

[Torsten]

Interesting problem. We grow both the hairy and the non hairy variety and I'd never worked with the hairy one before. It is certainly something to watch out for.

Maybe try using a waterpipe, as the hairs would definitely get caught in the water. Or maybe a filter cigarette?

[theobromos]

And be very cautious about the dose. There are a lot of unknowns in those leaves. The hairs are very light and must be difficult to exclude totally.

Remember to leave a note describing your experiment to help the coroner if necessary.

[friendly]

Mark from JLF once had me attempt to find just the hairs for him. They occur in the seed pods, too. My Indian suppliers were not interested in supplying the hairs, though.

Mark was of the opinion that they were psychoactive, although I do not recall just why.

I'm pretty certain it had nothing to do with the histamine reaction caused by the irritation, though.

I do remember they were to be smoked.

[woof woof woof]

You can maybe burn the hairs off before drying the leaves. Then use a filter or waterpipe like suggested above.

The hairs might some unwanted stuff,.... who knows.

[Auxin]

As I recall the hairs have histamine, histidine, serotonin, and a highly irritant protein as the itck inducers.

The protein probably wouldnt cause problems if the smoke were filtered good enough but I sure wouldnt want to smoke histamine or histidine.

[Yeti101]

I didn't realise there were two varieties, trust me to get the hairy one (off SAB actually).

I did think that as the seed pod hairs contained serotonin and irritants so did the leaf hairs.As for the irritation, the dried leaves seem to have much less effect, but this needs further work. A very well filtered extract or something like that may be the answer in this case. Who would know, there is limited information concerning the leaves available.

Be nice if it worked out well though, an easy plant to grow once you get past the germination.

Maybe I'll just have to wait for the beans.....

[t st tantra]

i've grown plants from 2 different sab seed batches,very different looking seeds fom each batch,but never got pods,just flowers once.both lots of leaf had similar effects,atiny amt of yohimbie bark was a nice addition.the hairs were never noticed.

also,i've located a plant suposed to be m gigant... ,it has tri lobed leaves and is a vine but the leaflets are glossy and sort of jasmine shaped.and the florescence is nothing like pruriens.

any ideas?

t s t .

[Torsten]

Originally posted by t st tantra:

and the florescence is nothing like pruriens.

any ideas?

Isn't it stunning!??!! A friend is growing some for me as well. I would love to try some seeds.

[mescalito]

Grew a nice 'Un-hairy' plant from SAB last year,and the leaves smoked nice :cool:

Never flowered though...

[Auxin]

So mesc, what effects did you get from the leaves?

I've never heard of that before.