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Botany
A vine, prostrate on the ground,
with alternate compounded long-petioled leaves in 3 broad obovate
leaflets, 2 to 15 cm long. The inflorescence is a long peduncled
raceme with a few paired pink-purple pea type flowers about 4
cm long. Stamens are ten in number united into a tube covering
the elongated ovary. The pods are rought, turgid, 8 to 12 cm
long and 2 to 3 cm wide with fairly large seeds. New plants start
vegetatively from runners.
Distribution
Found along tidal streams, brackish swamps
and muddy banks throughout the Philippines.
The flowers are wind pollinated.
Seeds are dispersed from the pods and transported by water to distant
places.
Parts
used
Leaves
Constituents
and properties
• An active principle,
L-betonicine has been isolated, with no conclusive hallucinogenic evidence.
• Considered aphrodisiac.
Uses
Folkloric
Juice from the petioles applied
to puncture wounds by thorns or other sharp objects.
Decoction of leaves used for rheumatism.
Paste of leaves used for boils.
In the Samoa, plant potion used during
labor.
Nutrition
Seeds are edible and serve
as an important source of dietary protein in West Africa and Nigeria.
Tender pods and seeds may be boiled or roasted.
Others
• Dried leaves have
been used as entheogen, a component to some ancient rituals.
• In ancient Peru, the fruit had ritual and magical significance.
• In South America, Africa and
Gulf Coast of Mexico, beans of C. maritima are ingested or smoked
with the dried leaves as marijuana.
• An increasing following for its use as a marijuana substitute.
• In ancient Peru, the fruit had ritual and magical significance.
Studies
• Phytochemicals: Albumins and globulins are the major storage proteins, constituting 90% of the total proteins in Canavalia seeds. Total phenolics were low, while tannins and trypsin inhibition were absent. As with other legums, Canavalia seeds possess antinutritional factors such as phenolics and phytohemagglutinins.
• Canarosine / Dopamine D1Receptor Inhibition: Study yielded a new acyclic alkaloid, canarosine, together with five known compounds. Canarosine showed inhibition of the dopamine D1 receptor binding.
• Lectin / Vascular Smooth Muscle Relaxation: Study of a lectin from Cm seeds and its relaxant activity on vascular smooth muscle showed that CM exerts a concentration-dependent relaxant action on isolated aortic rings probably via an interaction with a specific lectin-binding site on the endothelium, resulting in a release of nitric oxide.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
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