ABSTRACT
Despite being a minor crop, azuki bean has considerable cultural importance in East Asia. In Japan, azuki bean is associated with success and good fortune. Thus, to celebrate happy occasions such as a births or weddings, or success in an exam, glutinous rice is cooked with azuki bean to produce “sekihan” or red rice. Azuki bean is an important component of traditional Japanese foods such as steam “an” (azuki paste) buns; azuki paste mixed with agar-agar makes a jellylike dessert (yokan); taiyaki is a waffle filled with azuki paste. Azuki flour mixed with wheat flour is used to make noodles in parts of China. In traditional Chinese medicine, azuki has been reported to treat
many ailments (Sacks, 1977). In Nepal, young pods are used as a vegetable (Baral, personal communication, 2002). Azuki beans contain about 21% protein (Duke, 1981).
