Mucuna pruiens
 

does anyone have experience with this supplement--does one have to take carbidopa to stop peripheral receptors from utilizing the available L-dopa?
Is there a reliable supplier? I remember from the old BT discussions concerning this supplement from India there were some individuals (maybe one individual?) who took both sinemet and mucuna pruiens. thanks for any information. madelyn

mucuna source
 

Amazon, believe or not. A shop called "Bazaar of India" sells it by the pound for $20 or so. One caution, it is the stainingest stuff you'll ever see. Get a tiny bit of powder on an enamelled sink and let moisture hit it, you'll have a black mess that takes forever to get off.

It does work, by the way. Other than the mess, I preferred it in many ways and plan to get back to it this spring.

Zandopa
 

Madelyn,

I have been taking Zandopa from India for a few months. Am very slowly switching from sinemet. It works on its own and 'kicks' in in about 1/2 hr. I tried mucuna and it semed to need some sinemet with it. I get it from India from following:

http://mall.coimbatore.com/bnh/zandu/zandopa.htm

Can send you the brochure by PM if you are interested.

Hope this helps!
Sunflower

zandopa
 

thanks to you both for responding--either of you know if one must take carbidopa with mucuna?

I took it both ways
 

It's been awhile but as I recall I preferred it without Sinemet. I figure there is a reason my body wants to break down some of the ldopa and I am reluctant to deactivate the enzymatic process system-wide.

I posted about mucuna and Zandopa in this thread:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=1462

My zandopa arrived from India in 9 days!

In clinical trial, mucuna worked 3 times as well as sinemet (same amount of levodopa in each), so they surmise carbidopa type chemicals must be in the mucuna. Someone on the board said he didn't need carbidopa for the mucuna to work.

I haven't used the zandopa yet.

There are other old threads about mucuna with good info. Worth a search.