Adzuki Bean/Chì Xiǎo Dòu 赤小豆

A 2022 review summarised the composition of adzuki bean — notably its abundant polyphenols, starch and protein — along with reported health benefits and food uses. The authors concluded that adzuki is a promising functional grain whose components could be developed into value-added products, while noting that most benefit data come from laboratory and animal work.

A 2022 overview described adzuki as rich in starch and lysine-rich protein that complements cereal diets. It collected evidence — largely preclinical — for antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties and for favourable effects on diabetes, diabetic kidney damage, obesity and high-fat-diet cognitive decline, supporting the bean's traditional dual use as food and medicine.

In a 2011 rat study, a diet containing 1% polyphenol-rich adzuki seed coat blunted the rise in blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats over eight weeks. Treated animals showed less vascular superoxide production and lower expression of oxidative and inflammatory markers in the aorta, suggesting the seed-coat polyphenols may protect blood vessels. Human data are lacking.

A 2023 laboratory study identified catechin and epicatechin 7-O-glucosides as abundant adzuki polyphenols. In cell and micelle models these compounds reduced cholesterol solubility, bound bile acids and lowered cholesterol uptake by intestinal Caco-2 cells, with potency comparable to catechin. The authors suggested this may explain earlier reports of cholesterol-lowering effects, pending human trials.