Nutritional and bioactive compounds of adzuki bean cultivars using chemometric approach Compostos nutricionais e bioativos de duas cultivares de feijão adzuki utilizando abordagem quimiométrica

ABSTRACT Azuki beans are small red grains rich in several essential nutrients used in traditional dishes in Asia that, nowadays present many applications around the world. This work aimed at evaluating angularis and niponensis cultivars from south region of Brazil. Both cultivars presented proximal composition similar to literature and the majority fatty acids were 18:2n-6, 16:0 and 18:3n-3. All samples showed polyunsatured fatty acids prevalence and nutritional indices and ratios considered adequate for biological system maintenance of a healthy organism. The grains presented significant contents of tocopherols and vitamin E activity, resulting in a high contribution to the dietary reference intake. Significant contents of iron, manganese and zinc were also found in the azuki beans, and they are very important mainly due to their function as cofactors in metabolic reactions. Phenolic compounds and flavonoids corroborated with other studies and contributed to the antioxidant activity. The principal components multivariate analysis allowed distinguishing the cultivars, and the two principal components could explain 92.28% of data variance.