| Botany
A climbing or trailing
vine, 4 to 6 m long, with a smooth, usually purple stem. Leaves are
long stalkd, with 3 inequilateral leaflets, each about 4 to 10 cm long.
Flowers are in clusters, white to purple in color, along an erect inflorescence
stalk. The pods are purple-margined, flat, and elongated with a prominent
beak, about 7.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide.
Properties
Emmenagogue
(flowers); tonic and carminative (boiled ripe seeds); febrifuge,
stomachic, antispasmodic.
Propagation
Propagation
by seeds. Cultivated for market produce. Pods are harvested about
4 months after planting.
Parts
used and preparation
Bean, root.
Uses:
Folkloric
A poultice of the
leaves mixed with rice-flowers and tumeric used for eczema.
Poultice of leaves for snake bites.
Infusion of leaves for colic.
Juice of the leaves mixed with lime, applied to tumors and abscesses.
Nutritional
Tender pods, seeds
and young leaves used as vegetable.
Young leaves and pods are good sources of calcium, iron, vitaminn
C, and other minerals.
Availability
Cultivated
for market produce.
Wildcrafted
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