Cowpea: An important legume

The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a widely grown legume food crop of the tropics. It is an important crop of India and it is known by many Vernacular names like lobia (Hindi), barbatati (bangals), sonta (Garhwali), chavati (Marathi), alasande (Canada) and mampayer (Malayalam). In Rajasthan it is widely known as crowder pea, black eye bean, black eye pea, and southern pea. The seed vary in size (2 to 12mm), shape (globular to kidney shaped), texture (smooth or wrinkled) and colour (white, green, buff, red, brown and black) and are variably speckled, mustard blotched or eyed

Table 1 Nutritive value of cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata L.)

Nutrients	Amount  (100 g)
Moisture (%)	13.40
Protein (g)	24.10
Fat (g)	1.00
Carbohydrate (g)	323.00
Minerals (g)	3.20
Fibre (g)	3.80
Carotene (mg)	12.00
Thiamine (mg)	0.51
Phosphorus (mg)	77.00
Iron (mg)	8.60
Folic acid (mg)	8.60
Riboflavin (mg)	0.20
Niacin (mg)	0.20
Calcium (mg)	60.00

Health benefits of Cowpea

• Cowpea is famous traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which has functions of nourishing spleen, kidney, curing vomiting and dysentery.
• It tones the spleen, stomach and pancreas and relieves damp conditions like leucorrhea.
• The soluble fiber found in these beans has a low glycemic index and provide low risk for diabetes.
• The cooking liquor of the seed with spices is considered to be a potential remedy for the common cold.
• The leaves and seeds are applied as a poultice to treat swellings and infections, leaves are chewed to treat tooth ailments, powdered carbonized seeds are applied on insect stings, the root is used as an antidote for snakebites and to treat epilepsy, chest pain, constipation and dysmenorrheal and unspecified part of plant are used as a sedative in tachycardia and against various pains.
• An infusion of seed can be taken orally to treat amenorrhea while powdered roots eaten with porridge are believed to treat painful menstruation, epilepsy and chest pain.