Seedpods edible - raw or cooked. They can be roasted, chewed or ground into a powder. Mature seeds can be soaked overnight and then baked like kidney beans. The seeds are rich in protein (they contain around 29% protein, 48% carbohydrate and 14% fat) and have potential for use as a human food. The seeds do contain antinutritional factors, including trypsin inhibitors, phenols, alkaloids and haemagglutinin, but these are not present in high enough concentration to constitute a major nutritional problem. These antinutritional factors are soluble in saline solutions and can be removed by soaking or during cooking. A syrup prepared from the ground up pods has various medicinal values. It is given to children showing weight deficiency or retardation in motor development. The leaves are used in the treatment of oral infections, painful and frequent urinationThe powdered leaves are brewed in water and the liquid applied to the eyes to treat irritations, conjunctivitis etc. 

പ്രോട്ടീൻ സമൃദ്ധമായതിനാൽ മനുഷ്യർക്ക് ആഹാരാവശ്യത്തിന് ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നു.

Trees, to 10 m high, bark deeply wavily fissured, yellowish-brown; branchlets zig-zag, glabrous; spines straight, ca. 5 mm long, solitary or paired, divergent, upto 5 cm long on older branches. Leaves bi-pinnate, alternate; stipular thorn to 1.5 cm long; petiole 1-5 cm long, slender; pinnae 2-4, even pinnate, 3-11 cm long, slender, flattened, ending in a short bristle, a circular gland near the base of lower pinnae; leaflets 22-36, opposite; petiolule to 3mm; lamina 6-23 x 1.5-5 mm, oblong or linear-oblong, base obtuse, apex obtuse, emarginate or mucronulate, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; midrib slightly excentric; lateral nerves prominent beneath. Flowers bisexual, 1.5 mm across, greenish-yellow, subsessile, in axillary spikes, to 12 cm long; bracteoles minute; calyx 1.5 mm long, campanulate, glabrous, 5-toothed; petals 5, ligulate, sub coherent at base; stamens 10, free, slightly exserted; anthers with an apical gland; ovary superior, stipitate, pubescent, ovules many; style filiform; stigma minute. Fruit a pod, 20-30 x 1.5 cm, pale yellow, glossy, smooth, flattened, with straight parallel sutures or irregularly sub moniliform; seeds ovoid, brown, embedded in pulpy mesocarp.