The nutritional value of white adzuki bean is relatively high, containing minerals, vitamins, crude fiber, and calcium and iron, among other substances, which also have good medicinal value. They can be used to treat diseases such as spleen and stomach weakness and leukorrhea. They also have good antibacterial and immune-enhancing effects.

1. Culinary value

White adzuki bean has high nutritional value, with higher mineral and vitamin content than most root and stem vegetables and melons and vegetables. It is also fresh and delicious. According to the ‘Food Composition Table’ compiled by the Institute of Health Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: 100 grams of white adzuki bean contains 2.8 grams of protein, 0.2 grams of fat, 5.4 grams of sugar, 35 calories, 1.4 grams of crude fiber, 116 milligrams of calcium, 1.5 milligrams of iron, 0.32 milligrams of carotene, 0.05 milligrams of thiamine, 0.07 milligrams of niacin, 0.7 milligrams of niacin, and 13 milligrams of ascorbic acid. White adzuki bean is a good health food, and it is also a cool beverage in summer.

2. Medicinal value

The earliest written records of white adzuki bean can be found in the book ‘Record of Famous Doctors’ by Tao Hongjing during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty wrote in ‘Compendium of Materia Medica’: ‘Take the hard shell of white adzuki bean, roast it with the skin, and use it as medicine.’ ‘The hard shell white adzuki bean has a full seed, white with a faint yellow color, a pungent smell, and a mild and neutral nature, benefiting the spleen and stomach. It can benefit the Taiyin Qi, unblock the Sanjiao, transform clear and descend turbidity, and is therefore used to treat central palace diseases, dissipate summer dampness and detoxify. The soft shell and black crow-colored ones have a slightly cool nature and can be eaten, and they also regulate the spleen and stomach.’ The ‘Chinese Pharmacopoeia’ compiled by the Drug Administration Committee of the Ministry of Health also says that white adzuki bean ‘strengthens the spleen and stomach, clears summer dampness. It is used for spleen and stomach weakness, summer dampness diarrhea, leukorrhea.’ In summary, white adzuki bean is a treasure. Its fruit (white adzuki bean), seed coat (adzuki bean skin), flowers, and leaves can all be used as medicine. Its taste is sweet and slightly damp, entering the spleen and stomach meridians, with the effects of tonifying the spleen and stomach, harmonizing and transforming dampness, dissipating summer dampness and detoxifying. It is mainly used for spleen and stomach weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, internal summer dampness, epigastric and abdominal pain, leukorrhea, and can also detoxify alcohol poisoning.

3. Pharmacological effects

100% white adzuki bean decoction has antibacterial and antiviral effects. It has inhibitory effects on dysentery bacillus and has detoxifying effects on vomiting caused by food poisoning and acute gastroenteritis. The water extract of white adzuki bean has inhibitory effects on the Columbia SK virus in mice.

20% of white adzuki bean cold salt infusion 0.3ml can promote the formation of active E-roses, that is, enhance the activity of T lymphocytes and improve the immune function of cells.