Mucuna pruriens, also known as Velvet beans and Cowhage plant (English name), is a medicinal plant. It’s a twining, climbing, annual herbaceous leguminous plant originally from southern China and eastern India. Its seeds are a source of proteins, lipids, dietary fibres, carbohydrates (primary metabolites) and minerals as well as flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, saponins, terpenoids and tannins (secondary metabolites). (L-Dopa), a starting material of dopamine is produced in the leaves as well as in the roots of M. pruriens. Various Alkaloids like prurienidine, prurienine, prurieninine have also been reported in M. pruriens extracts. In-addition, Linoleic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, decanoic, lauric, behenic, arachidic, and vernolic acids were found in the seeds. The medicinal applications of Mucuna pruriens include antioxidant, antidiabetic, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-obesity etc. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.