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Review · Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Conflicts declared

Adzuki bean nutrients, processing and reported health effects

Wang Y, Yao X, Shen H, et al · Free full text

What it found

Adzuki beans are rich in starch, protein, fibre and polyphenols, and extracts have shown antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and blood-sugar-lowering effects in lab and animal studies.

One 8-week trial in people found higher HDL cholesterol with adzuki bean extract than with a placebo.

What they found

Studies in people

Cholesterol in people

An 8-week trial in people found a significant increase in HDL cholesterol in those taking adzuki bean extract compared with a placebo, and no adverse effects were seen.

Animal and lab studies

Antioxidant activity in lab tests

Polysaccharides and polyphenols from adzuki beans scavenged several types of free radicals in lab tests, and coat polyphenols were better than vitamin C at scavenging some radicals.

Antibacterial effects in lab tests

Adzuki bean coat polyphenol extract inhibited Listeria and Salmonella in lab tests, and inhibited two Gram-positive bacteria but not two Gram-negative bacteria.

Blood sugar and diabetes in animals

In mice and rats, adzuki bean extract or polysaccharides improved blood sugar, insulin resistance and lipid levels. In a lab digestion test, adzuki bean starch broke down more slowly than rice starch.

Other findings

Starch and protein content

Total starch in adzuki beans ranged from 28.50% to 60.69% across varieties, with amylose from 11.08% to 75.63%. Protein averaged 16.33% to 29.2%, two to three times higher than cereal grains.

Polyphenol content

Polyphenols in adzuki beans reached up to 3.73 mg/g, higher than mung beans and soybeans, and in one study 10.38 mg/g, with bound phenols about five times the free phenols.

What the authors conclude

  • They say adzuki beans have various health benefits and positive effects on the treatment of diseases, supporting their edible and medicinal value.
  • They note that there are no standards for extracting bioactive substances like phenols and polysaccharides, which makes it hard to compare studies.
  • They call for more research on how processing changes these substances, on gut probiotics, and on the genetics of adzuki beans.

How it was done

The authors say few reviews have covered adzuki beans specifically, so they wanted to pull together what is known about the bean's nutrients, how it behaves during processing, and its effects on human health.

They gathered and described published studies on adzuki bean composition, processing and health effects. These included lab tests, animal experiments and one 8-week trial in people.

What it can’t tell you

  • Most of the health findings come from lab tests or animals, so they cannot show what happens in people.
  • The one trial in people was small and looked only at cholesterol over 8 weeks, so it cannot show long-term effects or effects on disease.
  • The review did not find studies on how much of the polyphenols and polysaccharides people actually absorb after eating adzuki beans.

The paper

Title
Nutritional Composition, Efficacy, and Processing of Vigna angularis (Adzuki Bean) for the Human Diet: An Overview
Type
ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
Evidence
Studies in people · animals · lab
Summarised from
Full text
Licence
CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
Cite
Wang Y, Yao X, Shen H, et al (2022). Nutritional Composition, Efficacy, and Processing of Vigna angularis (Adzuki Bean) for the Human Diet: An Overview. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland). doi:10.3390/molecules27186079Free full textPubMed 36144812DOI

Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error