Culpeper: ‘Fabarum. Of Beans. Of Bean Cods (or Pods as we in Sussex call them) being burned, the ashes are a sovereign remedy for aches in the joints, old bruises, gout and sciaticaes.’

P.O.M. L-dopa

Lupine is the name for a white-flowered Broad Bean which appears to be Vicia faba – see woodcut Parkinson 1640 p.1073 where he describes it as ‘the flat Beane or Lupine’.

Fava bean.

Family name change from Papilionaceae

It may be the ingredient of 'a mess of pottage' for which Esau traded his birthright (Old Testament) and while the author is vague about which type of bean, he notes that they were found in excavations of a 6750BC archeological site in Iraq, as well as in the pyramids (1750BC). They were consumed in large numbers by the Greeks and Romans in the classical era, imported from Alexandria (and presumably elsewhere). He writes that an 'old English cure for warts recommends rubbing the wart with the inside of a bean pod' and that walking up and down a row of flowering beans cured whooping cough, a walk which was also considered an aphrodisiac. Biblical refs: Genesis 25:29-34, Samuel 17:28

Notes: Vicia faba is perfectly edible for the majority, but 1% of Caucasians, predominantly among Greeks, Italians and people from the Eastern Mediterranean regions, have a genetic trait in that they lack the ability to produce the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. As a consequence, eating broad beans or even inhaling the pollen, causes a severe haemolytic anaemia a few days later. This condition is known as favism. The whole plant, including the beans, contains levodopa, a precursor of dopamine, and some patients with Parkinsonism report symptomatic improvement after commencing on a diet that contains these beans regularly. A case of neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome (fever, rigidity, autonomic instability, altered consciousness, elevated creatine phosphokinase levels) consequent on abrupt discontinuation of a diet containing plenty of broad beans, has been described in a patient with Parkinsonism. This is usually seen when patients abruptly discontinue L-dopa therapy.

Yes but only in rare genetically susceptible people; Favism.