Details of Research Outputs

Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis) has been not only used as traditional Chinese medicine, but also used as a snack food or confectionery products for thousands of years in China. Adzuki bean is a good source of functional foods in Asian counties. It has been recorded that adzuki bean contain sugars, starch, proteins, fiber, polyphenols, and saponins. Adzuki bean owns lot of biological activities recorded from "Shen Nong's herbal classic" to the articles written by contemporary scientists. This review summarized chemical compositions in adzuki bean and their pharmacological effects, such as antioxidative effects, hepato-protective effects, anti-diabetic effects, blood pressure adjusting effects, anti-obesity effects, and anti-cancer effects and so on. Due to the limited information and non industrial scale production of chemical compositions like saponins from adzuki bean, further studies are suggested to focus on their chemicals, and the relationship of structureactivity for the bioactive compositions.