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Thought this might be of interest to all you bean lovers. Regards, Alan Bonander ======================================== Mucuna Pruriens Proves More Effective Than Levodopa / Carbidopa in Parkinson's Disease Animal Model Bala V. Manyam and Ghazala Hussain, Springfield, IL Objective. To compare the efficacy of Mucuna pruriens endocarp powder (MPE) to levodopa in Parkinson's disease animal model. Background. Seeds of the Mucuna pruriens plant have been found to be effective in treating Parkinson's disense (PD) in a clinical trial [Neurology 1994;44(suppl 2):A369]. MPE contains levodopa possibly bound to a protein. MPE may also contain other unidentified anti-parkinsonian drugs. Design/Methods. Unilateral intranigral injections of 6-hy-droxydopamine (6-OHDA) were made in male Sprague-Dawley rats to induce hemi-parkinsonism (n = 30). Efficacy of this procedure was validated using amphetamine (5 mg/kg intraperitoneally) induced ipsilateral rotations (IR) to the side of the lesion using a rotometer fitted with specially developed software to measure rotations. Contralateral rotations (CLR) to the side of lesion indicates anti-parkinsonian effect). Subsequently, the lesioned rats were fed levodopa (125 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg) and MPE (2.5 gm/kg and 5.0 gm/kg) mixed with rat chow (n = 6, for each dose and drug). Controls (n = 6) received no drug. An additional dose of levodopa (125 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg) or MPE (2.5 gm/kg and 5.0 gm/kg) plus carbidopa (50 mg/kg) were administered via a gavage (controls received only carbidopa 50 mg/kg ) 1 hour prior to testing with rotometer. CLR rotations were measured for 240 minutes. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance. Results. The animals treated with MPE showed a significantly higher number of CLR rotations (p = 0.037) compared to the levodopa treated group, when the levodopa content in MPE was identical to the synthetic doses used. Conclusion. Dose for dose, MPE was twice as effective as synthetic levodopa in inducing CLR in hemi-parkinsonian animal models, suggesting that MPE may contain unidentified anti-partinsonian compounds in addition to levodopa, or it may have adjuvants that enhance the efficacy of levodopa. Study supported by NIH. NEUROLOGY 46 February 1996