Kidney Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): Composition, Health Benefits, and Health-Oriented Processing Strategies

Kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are a globally distributed and rich in bioactive compounds with diverse health benefits. Despite extensive research characterizing these bioactives, systematic assessment of processing-induced changes and their regulatory mechanisms remains limited. This review evaluates the health implications of key kidney bean nutrients and bioactives. It particularly focuses on the dual roles of antinutritional factors and highlights the synergistic interactions among the bean's constituents. The article examines how thermal, nonthermal, bioprocessing, and other emerging technologies modulate health-promoting properties, detailing the mechanisms by which processing influences nutrient bioavailability, reduction of antinutritional factors, functional-component enrichment, and allergenicity. Evidence suggests that integrative processing approaches offer significant advantages. These include enhancing nutrient bioaccessibility, mitigating antinutrients, elevating the levels of functional components, and improving safety. A health-oriented processing framework is proposed, grounded in the characteristics of bioactive components and processing principles, to guide precise optimization of kidney bean health benefits and industrial applications. Looking forward, multiomics approaches should elucidate metabolic and regulatory networks of kidney bean constituents, supporting clinically informed, personalized interventions, and driving innovation and standardization of advanced processing technologies.