Hyacinth bean [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet], a plant belonging to the leguminous family and traditionally used for medicinal purposes in China, is a valuable resource with a wide range of health benefits. This review examines the bioactive compounds, health-promoting properties and functional food potential of hyacinth bean, highlighting its role in protecting against metabolic diseases and the underlying molecular mechanisms. According to existing research, hyacinth bean contains a diverse array of bioactive compounds, Consumption of hyacinth beans and hyacinth bean-related processed food products, as well as their use in medicines, is associated with a variety of health benefits that are increasingly favoured by the scientific community. In light of these findings, we posit that hyacinth bean holds great promise for further research and food application. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

The pH-response color-changeable films were prepared by adding different contents (1 %, 2 % and 3 %) of hyacinth bean anthocyanins (HBA) into guar gum/polyvinyl alcohol blend matrix. The structural characterization and optical, barrier, mechanical, thermal, antioxidant and color-changeable properties of the films were determined. The films were applied to monitor the freshness of chilled shrimp and pork. Results showed that HBA were pH-dependent color-changeable pigments that endowed the films with purple color. 2 % and 3 % of HBA improved the uniformity and compactness of the films by forming hydrogen bonds with film matrix. The barrier ability of the films against UV-vis light, water vapor and oxygen was significantly elevated by 2 % and 3 % of HBA. The mechanical, thermal and antioxidant properties of the films were improved by HBA. The films containing HBA were much sensitive to pH variation and ammonia vapor, presenting obvious color changes (purple→green→yellow-green). The films containing HBA showed good color stability when stored at 4 °C for 30 days. Moreover, the film containing 2 % HBA showed color changes (purple→green) when the chilled shrimp and pork decayed. The results suggested that the film containing 2 % HBA was suitable to monitor the freshness of meat products in intelligent packaging field.

UNASSIGNED: In natural systems, diverse plant communities tend to prevent a single species from dominating. Similarly, management of invasive alien plants may be achieved through various combinations of competing species.
UNASSIGNED: We used a de Wit replacement series to compare different combinations of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam), hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet) and mile-a-minute (Mikania micrantha Kunth) through measures of photosynthesis, plant growth, nutrient levels in plant tissue and soil, and competitive ability.
UNASSIGNED: Cultured alone sweet potato and hyacinth beans exhibited higher total biomass, leafstalk length, and leaf area than mile-a-minute. In mixed culture, either sweet potato or hyacinth bean or both together significantly suppressed the mile-a-minute parameters, i.e., plant height, branch, leaf, adventitious root, and biomass (P<0.05). Based on a significantly lower than 1.0 relative yield of the three plant species in mixed culture, we showed intraspecific competition to be less than interspecific competition. Calculated indices (relative yield, relative yield total, competitive balance index, and change in contribution) demonstrated a higher competitive ability and higher influence of either crop compared to mile-a-minute. The presence of sweet potato and hyacinth bean, especially with both species in combination, significantly reduced (P<0.05) mile-a-minute\'s net photosynthetic rate (Pn), antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and malondialdehyde), chlorophyll content, and nutrient content (N, P, and K). In soil with mile-a-minute in monoculture soil organic matter, total and available N, total and available K, and available P were significantly greater (P<0.05) than in soil with sweet potato grown in monoculture, but less than in soil with hyacinth bean grown in monoculture soil. Nutrient soil content was comparatively reduced for plant mixtures. Plant height, leaf, biomass, Pn, antioxidant enzyme activities, and plant and soil nutrient contents of sweet potato and hyacinth bean tended to be much greater when grown with two crops compared to in mixture with just sweet potato or hyacinth bean.
UNASSIGNED: Our results suggest that the competitive abilities of both sweet potato and hyacinth bean were greater than that of mile-a-minute, and also that mile-a-minute suppression was significantly improved via a combination of the two crops compared to either sweet potato or hyacinth bean alone.

In this study, genetic diversity and structure of 474 cultivated and 19 wild lablab (Lablab purpureus) accessions. were determined using 15 nuclear and 6 chloroplast SSR markers. The overall gene diversity was relatively low (0.3441). Gene diversity in the wild accessions (0.6059) was about two-folds greater than that in the cultivated accessions. In the wild accessions, gene diversity was greatest in the southern Africa, followed by East Africa. In the cultivated accessions, gene diversity was highest in the eastern Africa. The results suggested that South Africa is the center of origin and East Africa is the center of domestication of lablab. Different cluster analyses showed that 2-seeded-pod cultivated accessions (ssp. uncinatus) were clustered with wild accessions and that 4-(6)-seeded-pod cultivated accessions (ssp. purpureus and bengalensis) were intermingled. UPGMA tree suggested that ssp. purpureus and bengalensis were domesticated from 4-seeded-pod wild accessions of southern Africa. Haplotype network analysis based on nuclear SSRs revealed two domestication routes; the ssp. uncinatus is domesticated from 2-seeded-pod wild lablab (wild spp. uncinatus) from East Africa (Ethiopia), while the ssp. purpureus and bengalensis are domesticated from 4-seeded-pod wild lablab from Central Africa (Rwanda). These results are useful for understanding domestication and revising classification of lablab.

Hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus L.) is a highly proteineous legume under the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, cultivated throughout the world, and recently introduced vegetable in Korea. In April 2020, approximately 10 to 15% of the total harvested pods showed gray mold rot symptoms after 3-5 days of storage at 4 °C in Jeonju, Jeonbuk province, Korea. The symptoms observed were irregular, water-soaked spots become brown or gray with white hyphae were appeared on the infected pods. Diseased tissue was excised, and surface sterilized by immersing in 1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) for 1 min, rinsed three times with sterilized distilled water, placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates, and incubated at 20 ± 2°C for 7 days. A total of five morphologically similar fungal isolates (HBGM001 to HBGM005) were obtained from diseased samples; isolate HBGM002 and HBGM005 were selected for identification. The fungus produced initially white colonies, after 7 days it changes to gray to dark colonies with dark mycelium that sporulated abundantly on PDA at 20ºC. The conidia (n = 50) were single-celled, ellipsoid or ovoid in shape, and 6.11 to 13.9 × 4.8 to 9.4 μm in size for HBGM001 isolate and 5.81 to 14.1× 4.5 to 9.6 μm in size for HBGM005. Conidiophores (n = 15) arose solitary or in groups, straight or flexuous, septate, with an inflated basal cell brown to light brown, and measured 103 to 420× 7 to 25 μm for HBGM001 isolate and 101 to 415 × 5 to 23 μm for HBGM005 isolate. After two weeks, the fungus formed several black sclerotia (n = 20) ranging from 0.5 to 4.2 × 0.5 to 3.4 mm for HBGM001 isolate and 0.4 to 4.4 × 0.3 to 3.3 mm for HBGM005 isolate near the edge of the Petri dish. Morphological characters were consistent with those of Botrytis cinerea Pers.: Fr. (Ellis 1971). As for molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and three nuclear protein-coding genes (glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene [G3PDH], heat-shock protein 60 gene [HSP60], and DNA-dependent RNA polymerase subunit gene [RPB2]) were amplified using primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), G3PDH-F/G3PDH-R, HSP60-F/HSP60-R, and RPB2-F/RPB2-R (Staats et al. 2005), respectively. The ITS, G3PDH, HSP60, and RPB2 sequences of HBGM002 and HBGM005 isolates (GenBank accession number MT439648 and MT968495 for ITS; MT439649 and MT968496 for G3PDH; MT439650 and MT968497 for HSP60; MT439651 and MT968498 for RPB2 respectively) were 99% to 100% identical to those of B. cinerea (KY364366, KF015583, KJ018758, and KJ018756, respectively). To determine pathogenicity, five disinfected pods were pinpricked (3 sites per pod) with sterile needles and 50 µl of conidial suspension (1 × 105 conidia/ml) was inoculated by pipetting into the wounds. An analogous five pods, serving as controls, were inoculated with sterile distilled water. All the pods were placed in a growth chamber and maintained a temperature of 20±2ºC and a relative humidity >80%. After 5 days, gray mold symptoms developed on the inoculated pods, whereas no symptoms appeared on control pods. The pathogen was re-isolated from the inoculated pods, fulfilling Koch\'s postulates. B. cinerea has been reported causing gray mold in Hyacinth bean in China, Taiwan and India (Farr and Rossman 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of B. cinerea causing post-harvest gray mold on hyacinth bean in Korea. The disease could represent a threat for hyacinth bean post-harvest and storage and management strategies should be investigated and applied.

Lablab (Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet) is a legume crop widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. In this study, we assessed genetic diversity and population structure of 299 individuals of subspecies purpureus and bengalensis of lablab from Thailand using 13 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SSR markers detected only 34 alleles in total with a mean of 2.6 alleles per locus. Overall gene diversity was 0.360. Gene diversity (H E) and allelic richness (A R) in different geographic regions was comparable. Similarly, both H E and A R between subspecies purpureus and bengalensis were similar. STRUCTURE and neighbor-joining (NJ) analyses revealed that the 299 individuals were clustered into two major groups. In contrast, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed admixture of the lablab germplasm. STRUCTURE, NJ and PCoA analyses also revealed that the subspecies purpureus and bengalensis are not genetically differentiated. Although the number of individuals from the west of Thailand was small and all of them were collected from the same province, they possessed comparable gene diversity with those from the other geographic regions. These results demonstrated that there is moderately low genetic diversity of lablab in Thailand and the west of the country possesses high diversity of lablab.

Several large-scale metabolic profiling studies have been directed to prospect crops with a major focus on yield-related traits and, ultimately, with the definition of specific markers for plant selection in breeding programs. However, some of these technologies are expensive, time-consuming and not easily feasible for a quick approach. Fatty acid profiling was described as reliable biomarkers and as a chemotaxonomic tool allowing to study not only the diversity in germplasm collections but also to discriminate their geographic origin. We have used fatty acids profiling for a preliminary assessment of Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet (hyacinth bean) diversity and landraces discrimination. Hyacinth bean displays an enormous variability of agro-morphological traits, probably linked to the multi-purpose uses in different regions, i.e. as pulse, or as food with nutraceutical potential (Africa and Asia), forage (Africa and Australia) and ornamental (Europe and USA). Only two forage cultivars are widely marketed, cv. Rongai and cv. Highworth, with several landraces remaining to be addressed in terms of diversity. We show that fatty acids profiling was able to distinguish landraces, which display shared fatty acids with cultivars from the center of hyacinth bean diversity origin (East Africa). We propose that fatty acid profiling is a tool that may be used not only for nutritional value assessment but also as a chemodiversity tool in crop research.

The esoteric anti-obesity effects of hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab L) have largely remained unexplored. Herein, we investigated the anti-obesity mechanisms of hyacinth bean compared to milk thistle, a natural herb employed for ameliorating obesity-related diseases, using high-fat diet (HFD) fed mice towards unfolding the perplexing mechanisms.
C57BL/6J mice were orally administered hyacinth bean (25 mg/kg/day) and milk thistle (100 mg/kg/day) for 9 weeks along with HFD. Intriguingly, a number of anti-obesity mechanisms indexed through clinical parameters, suppression in weight gains and liver steatosis were found similar to some disparity. Furthermore, the corresponding metabolic implications were studied through MS-based metabolite profiling, and using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes for metabolic pathways revealing that hyacinth bean or milk thistle administration effectively attenuates the HFD-induced lipid, glucose, and bile acid metabolism, with former specifically attenuates pyruvate-derived amino acids metabolism. Among them, valine, asparagine, and lysine displayed high correlation with blood clinical parameters.
A lower dose of hyacinth bean resulted in similar anti-obesity effects as milk thistle, as confirmed by both clinical and metabolomics analyses. Equivocally, we conjecture that hyacinth bean could be used as a potent anti-obesity herbal functional food.