Chemical composition, antioxidant activity and development of desserts with azuki beans (Vigna angularis)

Abstract In Japan, azuki beans are commonly used in the preparation of desserts and their red seed coats are rich in antioxidants. In Brazil, azuki beans are still little consumed and the bean dessert little known by Brazilians. The aim of this study was to characterize red azuki beans (Vigna angularis) by means of chemical analyses, evaluate the influence of cooking on the total phenolic compound contents and antioxidant activity, and also evaluate the chemical composition of desserts formulated with azuki beans. The results obtained for the chemical composition showed that azuki beans presented high carbohydrate (65.60 g/100 g) and protein (17.87 g/100 g) contents. When compared to raw azuki beans, the cooked beans had lost most of the phenolic compounds, but still maintained nearly half of the antioxidant activity. The azuki bean desserts in the solid and paste forms presented, respectively, high carbohydrate contents (67.09 and 46.20 g/100 g), good protein contents (4.02 and 6.48 g/100 g) and low lipid contents (0.33 and 2.73 g/100 g). The red azuki beans showed good technological potential for use in the processing of bean desserts.