Adzuki beans are grown in several countries around the world and are widely popular in Asia, where they are often prepared in various food forms. Adzuki beans are rich in starch, and their proteins contain a balanced variety of amino acids with high lysine content, making up for the lack of protein content of cereals in the daily diet. Therefore, the research on adzuki beans and the development of their products have broad prospects for development. The starch, protein, fat, polysaccharide, and polyphenol contents and compositions of adzuki beans vary greatly among different varieties. The processing characteristic components of adzuki beans, such as starch, isolated protein, and heated flavor, are reported with a view to further promote the processing and development of adzuki bean foods. In addition to favorable edibility, the human health benefits of adzuki beans include antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Furtherly, adzuki beans and extracts have positive effects on the prevention and treatment of diseases, including diabetes, diabetes-induced kidney disease or kidney damage, obesity, and high-fat-induced cognitive decline. This also makes a case for the dual use of adzuki beans for food and medicine and contributes to the promotion of adzuki beans as a healthy, edible legume.

Baked adzuki beans are rich in tantalizing odor and nutritional components, such as protein, dietary fiber, vitamin B, and minerals. To analyze the final quality of baked beans, the acrylamide and volatile formation of adzuki beans were investigated under the conditions of microwave baking and drum roasting. The results indicate that the acrylamide formation in baked adzuki beans obeys the exponential growth function during the baking process, where a rapid increase in acrylamide content occurs at a critical temperature and low moisture content. The critical temperature that leads to a sudden increase in acrylamide content is 116.5 °C for the moisture content of 5.6% (w.b.) in microwave baking and 91.6 °C for the moisture content of 6.1% (w.b.) in drum roasting. The microwave-baked adzuki beans had a higher formation of the kinetics of acrylamide than that of drum-roasted beans due to the microwave volumetric heating mode. The acrylamide content in baked adzuki beans had a significant correlation with their color due to the Maillard reaction. A color difference of 11.1 and 3.6 may be introduced to evaluate the starting point of the increase in acrylamide content under microwave baking and drum roasting, respectively. Heating processes, including microwave baking and drum roasting, for adzuki beans generate characteristic volatile compounds such as furan, pyrazine, ketone, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, pyrroles, sulfocompound, phenols, and pyridine. Regarding flavor formation, beans baked via drum roasting showed better flavor quality than microwave-baked beans.

As some of the richest sources of natural antioxidants, small berry fruits have attractive colors and special tastes, with recognized benefits for human health. However, sour tastes in small berry juices result in a poor flavor and low acceptance among consumers, greatly limiting their marketability. Among the most commonly used deacidification methods, chemical deacidification methods can neutralize fruit juice via the addition of a deacidification agent, while physical deacidification methods include freezing deacidification, ion-exchange resin deacidification, electrodialysis deacidification, and chitosan deacidification. All of these methods can markedly improve the pH of fruit juice, but they introduce new substances into the juice that may have an influence on its color, taste, and stability. Biological deacidification can effectively remove malic acid from fruit juice, reducing the content from 15 g/L to 3 g/L; additionally, it maintains the taste and stability of the juice. Therefore, it is widely applied for fruit juice deacidification. On this basis, some compound deacidification technologies have also emerged, but they also present problems such as high costs and complicated working procedures. This review of deacidification methods for small berry juice provides a foundation for the industrial development of such juices.

Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.) is a polyphenol-rich berry increasingly recognized as a functional food ingredient for postprandial glycemic management. However, it remains unclear whether its polyphenols can modulate intestinal glucose transport in addition to inhibiting carbohydrate-digesting enzymes. In this study, blue honeysuckle polyphenol extract (BHPE) was characterized by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS, and its effects on α-glucosidase activity and intestinal glucose transport were evaluated using enzyme kinetics, fluorescence quenching, molecular docking, and differentiated Caco-2 monolayers. A total of 24 phenolic compounds were tentatively identified, with anthocyanins and chlorogenic acid derivatives as the major constituents. BHPE exhibited a mixed-type, static-quenching inhibition of α-glucosidase (IC₅₀ = 75.05 μg/mL). Furthermore, molecular docking revealed that key constituents, including cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, chlorogenic acid, and proanthocyanidin B1, bind the enzyme via hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. In Caco-2 cell monolayers, BHPE reduced glucose transport by up to 51.56% under simulated postprandial conditions and coordinately downregulated SGLT1 and GLUT2 mRNA expression to 0.58- and 0.51-fold, respectively. These findings extend the bioactivity profile of blue honeysuckle polyphenols from enzyme-level inhibition to functional regulation at the intestinal epithelial barrier, highlighting their potential as multi-target natural ingredients for the attenuation of postprandial hyperglycemia.

To improve the storage quality of adzuki bean paste from starch aging, the effects of glycolipid addition on the properties of gelatinization and retrogradation properties of adzuki flour obtained by the retrogradation inside adzuki bean during storage and transportation are investigated. The results indicate the significant differences in the gelatinization and the distribution of starch granules for different varieties of beans. The higher gelatinization temperature of adzuki flour results in the lower enthalpy of gelatinization with an undulating tendency of the retrogradation due to the short-term aging of amylose and long-term aging of amylopectin within adzuki flour. In the early stage of aging, the coexistence of protein, fat, and starch inside adzuki flour hinder the aging of starch. An Avrami equation is introduced to characterize the aging process of the starch–protein–fat–water system of different varieties of adzuki flours. The nucleation mode of the crystal nucleus has a significant effect on the aging rate of different varieties of adzuki flour. The fat in the system fails to demonstrate a significant effect on the nucleation mode of starch retrogradation. The addition of glycolipids increases the gelatinization enthalpy of adzuki flour. Glycolipids can reduce the aging degree of adzuki flour, and the inhibition effect on the retrogradation of sucrose monoester is greater than that of maltose monoester. The research results provide the valuable guidance for the high-quality processing and storage of adzuki bean paste from starch aging.

In this study, the heat treatment of white kidney beans was optimized by a single-factor experiment and an orthogonal experiment. Taking in vitro digestibility as an index, the optimum technological parameters for heating white kidney beans were determined as follows: water addition of 225%, medium pressure heating for 30 min, and a temperature of 110 °C. The results of scanning electron microscopy showed that the layered structure in white kidney beans disappeared, and the original particle morphology was lost. The protein network was broken, forming an irregular agglomerate or flocculent structure, and the porous structure formed by heat-induced crosslinking effectively delayed the contact of amylase. Heat-treated white kidney beans were added to rice, and their nutritional components were determined, and the glycemic index was estimated in vitro to determine the best addition amount. The results of the in vitro digestion rate showed that the rice treated with 40% white kidney beans significantly reduced the glycemic index (eGI = 41.48), and the texture analysis showed that the viscoelasticity of rice could be improved by compounding 40% white kidney beans. It also effectively improves the taste of 100% white rice. This study can provide interdisciplinary solutions for the development of staple food for diabetes and provide a scientific basis for the development of staple food with a low glycemic index and the improvement of traditional diets.