In Japan, adzuki bean is cooked with rice. During the cooking, the colour of rice becomes pale red. It is postulated that the red pigment is produced from procyanidins and that the ingestion of red rice causes the production of nitric oxide (•NO) in the stomach by reacting with salivary nitrite. The increase in colour intensity accompanied the decrease in the amounts of procyanidins, suggesting the conversion of procyanidins into the red pigment during the cooking. In addition, the red pigment combined with rice strongly. The red-coloured rice produced •NO by reacting with nitrite in artificial gastric juice, and the amounts were dependent on the contents of procyanidins and the equivalents. It is suggested that although adzuki procyanidins were oxidised during cooking with rice, procyanidins and the equivalents bound to rice still have the ability to produce bioactive •NO in the stomach using nitrite in mixed whole saliva.

Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Plant Molecular Biology České Budejovice Czechia

Faculty of Allied Health Sciences University of East Asia Shimonoseki Japan

Institute for Multidisciplinary Research University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia

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