Devil bean is a tropical legume, native to Africa and Asia. It’s called by different names such as; the Florida velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean, Lyon bean, but none more accurate than the devil's bean.
It has special itch-inducing properties steaming from the fact that the seed pods have hairs lined with serotonin and Devil bean.
I never believed leaves or plants could make me cry or go crazy until I had an encounter with the devil bean.
It all started when we are celebrating a friend birthday that particular morning and a friend mistakenly ran into the bush to get leave to bath the celebrant. Being a daredevil and a risk taker, he sprang into action, diving deep and ran into the bush, and soon came running out screaming.
The culprit? Seeds called the ‘devil’s bean’ popularly known as werepe had clung to my friend body and clothes and was giving me the time of his life.
I was so shocked wondering what in God’s name could be happening to him, the pain increased and the first mistake he took was to take his bath.
Then the screaming started, everyone knew that something was wrong at that moment, he was scared and he didn't know what to do until an elderly person came around and told us to get palm oil and rub it all over my body. It took some time, but the itching stopped.
Having never had an experience with any leaves before (such as poison ivy or the likes), I wholly and completely thought he was going insane (turn up), it been one of the worst experiences of his life.
Though not a chemistry student, I did learn a few things
• Do not touch what you know not, especially in a forest/bushy area. Tons of plants and creatures make their home in such places and nature will not hesitate to mess with you should the need arise.
• Certain things aren’t necessarily for cooking alone, the palm oil I used is mainly extracted from palm fruits, and is used in cooking a variety of delicacies here in Africa. The fact that it reduced the etching property of the devil bean is a nice addition to its catalogs.
