Characteristics of lipid components, fatty acid distributions and triacylglycerol molecular species of adzuki beans (Vigna angularis)

Abstract Fatty acid (FA) distributions and molecular species of triacylglycerols (TAG) isolated from total lipids extracted from adzuki beans ( Vigna angularis ) were analysed by a combination of AgNO 3 -TLC and GC, and were investigated in relation to the content of endogenous antioxidants determined by HPLC. δ-Tocopherol was present in the highest concentration (30.5 mg/kg beans), and γ-tocopherol in small amounts (12.8 mg/kg beans). The major lipid components were phospholipids (74.3%), TAG (13.5%), hydrocarbons (4.6%) and steryl esters (4.0%), whilst other components were also present in minor proportions (0.5–1.3%). Seventeen different molecular species were detected. The major TAG components were SMD (5.0%), S 2 T (19.2%), SD 2 (13.7%), SMT (9.3%), MD 2 (4.5%), SDT (7.0%), D 3 (8.8%) and ST 2 (15.8%) (where S, M, D, and T denote a saturated FA, a monoene, a diene, and triene, respectively). These results would be useful to both consumers and producers for manufacture of traditional adzuki foods in Japan.