The New International Encyclopædia/Cowage

COWAGE, COWHAGE, or COWITCH (from Hind. Kawānch, Koānch) . Short, slender, brittle hairs, which grow on the outside of the pods of plants of the genus Mucuna, natives of the tropical parts of America and Asia. The genus belongs to the natural order Leguminosæ and has a knotted, two-valved pod, divided by transverse partitions. The species are twining plants, shrubby or herbaceous, with leaves of three leaflets. That which yields most of the cowage brought to market is Mucuna pruriens, a native of the East Indies, with racemes of fine purple flowers, which have a disagreeable alliaceous smell, and pods about 4 inches long. Mucuna urens, the ox-eye bean of the West Indies, yields cowage of similar quality. The hairs readily stick in the skin, and cause intolerable itching. Cowage is sometimes used in medicine, acting mechanically in killing and expelling worms, particularly the species of Ascaris (q.v.). That it does not act on the inner surface of the intestinal canal is supposed to be owing to the mucous secretion. It is generally administered in syrup or honey. Before the pods of cowage-plants are ripe, they are used as a vegetable, like kidney beans, and are very palatable. Mucuna utilis, velvet bean, is by some considered specifically the same as Mucuna pruriens, but velvet-bean pods are without the stinging hair of the other. The velvet bean has lately attracted much attention as a forage crop. It is well adapted to Florida and the Gulf States, having about the same value as the better varieties of cow-peas. As a green manure and mulch crop for orchards it is highly considered.